Descendants Book I: Welcome to the Isle
by HeraJackson
Summary: This story of five children making it on the Isle is more than a little wicked. Join Mal, daughter of the Mistress of Evil, Maleficent. Evie, daughter of the forever vain Evil Queen. Jay, son of the once royal advisory, Jafar. Carlos, the son of the fashion forward Cruella de Vil. And Faith, daughter of the deal making and breaking Dr. Facilier. I sadly own NOTHING!
1. Parties and their Consequences

_Once upon a time, during a time after all the happily-ever-afters, and perhaps even after the ever-afters after that, all the evil villains of the world were banished from the United Kingdom of Auradon and imprisoned on the Isle of the Lost. There, underneath a protective dome that kept all manner of enchantment out of their clutches, the terrible, the treacherous, the truly awful, and the severely sinister were cursed to live without the power of magic._

 _King Beast declared the villains exiled forever._

 _Forever, as it turns out, is quite a long time. Longer than an enchanted princess can sleep. Longer, even, than an imprisoned maiden's tower of golden hair. Longer than a week of being turned into a frog, and certainly much longer than waiting for a prince to finally get around to placing that glass slipper on your foot already._

 _Yes, forever is a long, long, long time._

 _Ten years, to be specific. Ten years that these legendary villains have been trapped on a floating prison of rock and rubble._

 _Okay, so you might say ten years isn't such a long time, considering; but for these conjurers and witches, viziers and sorcerers, evil queens and dark fairies, to live without magic was a sentence worse than death._

 _(And some of them were brought back from death, only to be placed on this island—so, um, they should know.)_

 _Without their awesome powers to dominate and hypnotize, terrorize and threaten, create thunderclouds and lightning storms, transform and disguise their features or lie and manipulate their way into getting exactly what they wanted, they were reduced to hardscrabble lives, eking a living selling and eating slop, scaring no one but their own minions, and stealing from each other. It was hard even for them to imagine they once had been great and powerful, these poisoners of forest apples and thieves of undersea voices, these usurpers of royal powers and owners of petulant mirrors._

 _Now their lives were anything but powerful. Now they were ordinary. Everyday._

 _Dare it be said? Dull._

 _So it was with great excitement and no small fanfare that the island gathered for a one-of-a-kind event: a six-year-old princess's wickedly wonderful birthday party. Wicked being something of a relative term under a dome that houses a bunch of powerless former villains._

 _In any event, a party it was._

 _It was the most magnificent celebration the isolated island and its banished citizens had ever seen, and tales of its gothic grandeur and obnoxious opulence would be told for years to come. The party to end all parties, this lavish occasion transformed the ramshackle bazaar and its rotting storefronts in the middle of the island into a spookily spectacular playground, full of ghostly lanterns and flickering candles._

 _Weeks before, a flock of vultures had circled the land, dropping invitations on every shabby doorstep and hovel so that every grubby little urchin from every corner of the island would be able to partake in this enchanting and extraordinary event._

 _Every little urchin on the island, that is, except for one malicious little fairy._

 _Whether her invitation was lost to the winds and torn to tatters or devoured by the hungry buzzards themselves—or—gasp!—never even addressed in that looping royal scrawl, as was suspected, we will never know._

 _But the result was the same._

 _Above the tumultuous bazaar, up high on her castle balcony, six-year-old Mal pulled on the locks of her thick, purple hair and pursed her lips as she observed the dark and delicious festivities below. What she could make of them, at least._

 _There she saw the tiny princess, the fairest of the (is) land, sitting on her rickety throne, her hair as blue as the ocean, eyes as dark as night, and lips as pink as roses. Her hair was pulled back from her face in a pretty V-braid, and she laughed in delight at the array of marvels before her. The princess possessed a darling giggle that was so entrancing, it brought a smile to haughty Lady Tremaine's face, she of the thwarted plans to marry her daughters to Prince Charming; the ferocious tiger Shere Khan was practically purring like a contented kitty; and for old times' sake, Captain Hook bravely stuck his head between Tick-Tock's open jaws, if only so he could make her laugh and hear that lovely peal again._

 _The princess, it would seem, could make even the most horrible villains smile._

 _But Mal wasn't smiling. She could practically smell the two-story cake made of sour apples, sinfully red and lusciously wormy; and try as she might, she couldn't help but overhear the screeches of the parrot Iago as he repeated, over and over again, the story of talking caves that held riches beyond measure, until the assembled villagers wanted to wring his feathered neck._

 _Mal sighed with green-eyed jealousy as the children gleefully tore into their baddie bags. The crumpled containers held a variety of evil sidekicks to choose from—pet baby moray eels akin to the slinky Flotsam and Jetsam swimming in tiny bowls; little spotted, cackling hyenas who were no quieter than the infamous Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed; pouncing and adorable black kittens from Lucifer's latest litter. Their badly behaved recipients screamed with excitement._

" _Pretty exciting huh?" A new voice said from above her. Mal snapped out of her glare of resentment and turned her head sharply to the roof next to her. There stood a girl with short black hair that was streaked in purple and covered both of her eyes. Her dark skin nearly blending in with the dark night. She was crouched down on the roof with some sort of bag in her hand._

 _The girl tossed the bag toward Mal, who caught it easily with one hand, a little shocked to see that it was the baddie bags that where being handed out._

" _I don't want it, and I rarely waste, so accept the damn thing and wipe that shocked look of your face," the girl said from her perch._

" _So if you were invited to the great party, why aren't you there?" Mal said, pushing the comment out of the way._

 _The girl up top shivered a little, "Crowds. Always hated them. The only reason I was there was because my dad dragged me there. Left as soon as I could." She looked over to see Mal had returned her glare to the party. "It wasn't that cool of a party anyway, it's more like a talent show mixed with a give-away."_

" _Are you trying to make me feel better?" Mal said looking at the girl with a mischievous glint in her eyes._

 _Said girl snorted, "Of course not. I just find it pointless to glare at something as stupid as a party."_

 _They were both silent after that and Mal continued to glare at the party, ignoring what the girl said._

 _As the party escalated in feverish merriment, Mal's heart grew as black as her mood, and she swore that one day, she would show them all what it meant to be truly evil. "You know what?" She said._

" _Hmm?"_

" _One day I'm gonna grow up to be greedier than Mother Gothel, more selfish even than Cinderella's stepsisters, more cunning than Jafar, more deceptive than Ursula."_

" _Oh really," the girl said, glancing over at Mal, who had developed a righteous look._

" _Yeah, I will show them all that I'm just like my— Mother!" Mal yelped, as the shadow of two looming and ominous horns made their way toward the balcony, and her mother appeared, her purple cape fluttering softly in the wind._

 _Her mother's voice was rich, melodious, and tinged with menace. "What is going on here?" she demanded as the children below tittered at the sight of a highly inappropriate shadow-puppet show mounted by the frightening Dr. Facilier._

" _It's a birthday party," sniffed Mal. "And I wasn't invited." But the girl up top stayed quiet, retreating more into the shadows._

" _Is that right?" her mother asked. She peered at the celebration over Mal's shoulder, and all three took in the sight of the blue-haired princess giggling on a moth-eaten velvet pillow as Gaston's hairy and handsome young twin sons, Gaston Jr. and Gaston the Third, performed feats of strength—largely balancing their enormous booted feet on each other's squashed faces—to impress her. From the sound of things, it was working._

" _Celebrations are for the rabble," her mother scoffed. Mal knew her mother despised parties of any kind. She despised them almost as much as she did kings and queens who doted on their precious babies, chubby little fairies with a knack for dress design, and obnoxious princes on even more obnoxious valiant steeds._

" _Nevertheless, Evil Queen and her horrid progeny will learn soon enough from their spiteful little mistake!" her mother declared._

 _For her mother was the great Maleficent, Mistress of Darkness, the most powerful and wicked fairy in the world and the most fearsome villain in all the land._

 _Or at least, she had been._

 _Once upon a time, her mother's wrath had cursed a princess._

 _Once upon a time, her mother's wrath had brought a prince to his knees._

 _Once upon a time, her mother's wrath had put an entire kingdom to sleep._

 _Once upon a time, her mother had had all the forces of hell at her command._

 _And there was nothing Mal desired more in her heart than to grow up to be just like her._

 _Maleficent stepped to the balcony's edge, where she could see out to the whole island all the way to the sparkling lights of Auradon. She raised herself to her full height as thunder and lightning cracked and boomed and rain began to pour from the heavens. Since there was no magic on the island, this was just wickedly good coincidence._

 _The party came to a halt, and the gathered citizens were paralyzed at the sight of their leader glaring down at them with the full force of her wrath._

" _This celebration is over!" Mal's mother declared. "Now, shoo, flee, and scatter, like the little fleas you are! And you! Evil Queen and your daughter! From now on, you are dead to the entire island! You do not exist! You are nothing! Never show your faces anywhere ever again! Or else!"_

 _Just as quickly as it had gathered, the group dispersed, under the wary eye of Maleficent's frightening henchmen, the boar-like guards wearing aviator caps pulled down low over their hooded eyes. Mal caught a last glimpse of the blue-haired princess looking fearfully up at the balcony before being whisked away by her equally terrified mother._

 _Mal's eyes glittered with triumph, her dark heart glad that her misery had caused such wondrous maleficence. "I got to go." The girl said, and Mal looked over to see her form retreating, hopping roof top to roof top. "Enjoy the baddie bag!" She shouted over her shoulder before disappearing into the night._

" _You're in my world now,_

 _not your world._

 _And I've got friends,_

 _on the other side."_

 _-Dr. Facilier_

 _Faith looked at her reflection in the mirror and sighed, she was leaving the house for the first time in a while. Of course, she wanted to stay home, but her father was making true on his promise and dragging her out the house. She put on her rose arrow piercing that went through her top ear cartilage, and her feather earrings. And the small clawed hands ring wrapped around her middle finger. A pentagram pendant hung from the chocker of her neck, the skinny silky purple top with its black rose neckline was a little baggy on her, and her black and red splattered skinny jeans were anything but that._

 _She walked down the stairs of her home, the home that she never stepped foot out of since she was five._

" _Faith! Hurry up, we have to leave!" Dr. Facilier, her father, yelled from the door._

" _Go ahead, I'll meet you *third block!" She called back. Faith waited till she heard the door close to walk into the kitchen and grab a not to rotten apple, fresh of the docks. She took one last glance at the house before she strapped on her heels, which was really unfair for the boys at her school, 'cause they added on about two inches, and slipped on her jacket. She swung her leather black bag over one shoulder as she grabbed her cane with the other and walked out the door._

 _Of course Faith wasn't going to walk to school with her dad, how embarrassing would that be? No, she climbed up the side of the building using the electric boxes and window ledges as footholds and handles. Despite her wearing heals, Faith could leap and run as well as she would in any pair of flats. Making it to school in record time, even a few seconds before her father._

 _She sat down and relaxed on the rooftop with her legs swinging back and forth over the edge, Faith looked down and saw a sort of familiar purplett walking under her._

" _What in Lucifer's name?" Mal cried as the cup disappeared from her fingers. She hesitated for a second before realization hit. "Give it back, Jay," she said, hands on her hips, addressing the empty space on the sidewalk._

 _He snickered. Faith guessed that it was a lot of fun to mess with Mal and make her mad. "Make me."_

" _Jay!" she snarled. "Make you what? Bruise? Bleed? Beg? Thief's choice, today."_

" _Fine. Jeez," he said as he slunk out from the shadows. "Mmm, pressed hot mud, my favorite." He handed her back her cup, feeling wistful._

 _Mal took a sip and grimaced. "Actually, it's disgusting, you can have it. You look hungry."_

" _Really?" He perked up. "Thanks, Mal. I was starving."_

" _Don't thank me, it's particularly awful today. I think they threw some raw toads into the brew this morning," she said, unknowingly causing Faith to snicker._

" _Bonus! Extra protein." Amphibians or not, Jay drained it in one shot. He wiped his lips and smiled. "Thanks, you're a pal," he said in all honesty, even though he and Mal weren't friends, from what Faith had heard, although they were partners in crime._

 _She waited till the walked a few paces before jumping down and silently following after them. Like Jay's, Mal's jeans and jacket pockets were stuffed with all manner of junk, shoplifted from every storefront in town. A knitting needle was sticking out of one pocket, while the other contained what looked like a sword handle._

" _Can I trade you a teapot for that old sword?" he asked hopefully._

" _Sure," she said, taking a rusty kettle in exchange. "Look what else I got," she said. "Ursula's necklace." She rattled it in the air. "I nabbed it this morning when the old sea witch waved hello."_

" _Sweet." He nodded. "All I got was a handful of fries. Too bad it can't capture anything anymore, let alone a mermaid's voice."_

 _Mal huffed. "It's still valuable."_

" _If you say so." He shrugged._

 _Faith watched the two in amusement, whoever said they weren't friends were right, they were practically siblings. From her few moments of observation Faith could tell that despite whatever mess one would get into the other would help them out._

 _Whether or not the other would do so in truth or if they would lie and say it was to the others benefit is another story._

 _Even so, they fell into step on the walk to school. "Heard the news?" Jay asked._

" _What news? There's no new news," Mal scoffed, meaning nothing new ever happened on the island. The island's old-fashioned fuzzy-screened televisions only broadcast two channels—Auradon News Network, which was full of do-gooder propaganda, and the DSC, the Dungeon Shopping Channel, which specialized in hidden-lair décor. "And slow down, or we'll get there on time," she added._

 _They turned off the main road, toward the uneven, broken-down graveyard that was the front lawn of Dragon Hall. The venerable school for the advancement of evil education was located in a former mausoleum, a hulking gray structure with a domed ceiling and a broken-down colonnade, its pediment inscribed with the school's motto: IN EVIL WE TRUST. Scattered around its haunted grounds, instead of the usual tombstones, were doomstones with horrible sayings carved into them. As far as the leaders on this island were concerned, there was never a wrong time to remind its citizens that evil ruled._

" _No way, I heard news. Real news," he insisted, his heavy combat boots stomping through the root-ripped graveyard terrain. "Check it out—there's two new girls in class." Faith stiffened, that's already news? What no showing up to class first and_ _ **then**_ _having news spread, like normal?_

" _Yeah, right." Mal said._

" _I'm totally serious," he said, narrowly avoiding stumbling over a doomstone inscribed with the phrase IT IS BETTER TO HAVE NEVER LOVED AT ALL THAN TO BE LOVED._

" _New girls? From where, exactly?" Mal asked, pointing to the magical dome that covered the island and shrouded the sky, obscuring the clouds. Nothing and no one came in or out, so there wasn't ever a whole lot of new._

" _New to us. One is Dr. Facilier's kid, you know, the one that no one has ever seen? And the other one had been castle-schooled until now, so it's both their first time in the dungeon," said Jay as they approached the wrought-iron gates, and the crowd gathered around the entrance parted to let them through, many of their fellow students clutching their backpacks a little more tightly at the sight of the thieving duo. Meanwhile, Faith carefully weaved through the crowd, keeping her head down and her ears on the two._

" _Really." Mal stopped in her tracks. "What do you mean, 'castle-schooled'?" she asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously._

" _A real princess, the castle-schooled one, is what I've heard. Like, your basic true-love's-kiss-prick-your-finger-spin-your-gold-skip-the-haircut-marry-the-prince-level princess."_ _ **Castle schooled?**_ _Faith wondered. "Think I could lift a crown off her somewhere? Even a half-crown…?"_

" _A princess?" Mal said sternly. "I don't believe you."_

 _Jay wasn't listening anymore. "I mean, think of the loot she'd have on her! She's got to have a ton of loot, right? Hope she's easy on the eyes! Better yet, on the pockets. I could use an easy mark."_

 _Mal's voice was suddenly acid. "You're wrong. There weren't any princesses on the island, and certainly not any who would dare to show their faces around here.…"_

 _Just as the conversation was starting to get interesting, the bell rung. Faith sighed as the students, along with Mal and Jay, went inside the building. Slowly she followed the crowd, though she immediately entered the bathroom as it appeared and took off into one of the stalls._

 _Seems like she's still not one for big crowds…_

 _Meanwhile, Evie was enjoying her first day of school so far, she stepped inside her first class and made her way to the nearest open desk, smiling at those who came to gather curiously around her. Everyone was looking at her with such awe and admiration, she seemed to be making waves._

 _The desk she'd chosen had a remarkably large cauldron and a great view of the professor's lectern. She took a seat, and there was a gasp in the crowd. Wow, these kids sure were easy to please._

 _Evie was feeling pretty good about her first day until she heard the sound of a throat clearing._

 _When she looked up, there was a pretty, purple-haired girl standing in front of her cauldron, staring at her with unmistakable venom. Her mother's "mirror" would have had a few choice words about this one, that's for sure. Evie felt a cold dread as the memory of a certain infamous party came flooding back. Maybe if she played dumb and flattered her, the girl wouldn't remember what had happened ten years ago. It was worth a shot._

" _I'm Evie. What's your name?" Evie asked innocently, although she knew exactly who was standing in front of her. "And by the way, that jacket is amazing. It looks great on you—I love all the patchwork leathers on it."_

" _Girl, that's her cauldron. You should bounce," a student Evie would find out later was named Yzla whispered loudly._

" _Oh, this is yours…?" Evie asked the purple-haired girl._

 _The purple-haired girl nodded._

" _I had no idea this was your desk, I'm so sorry! But it has such a great view of the lectern," Evie said with her trademarked bright smile, so blinding, it should have come with sunglasses. Evie finally realized why the students had been staring at her. They had been watching a train wreck about to happen._

" _Yes, it does," the purple-haired girl replied, her voice soft and menacing. "And if you don't move your blue-haired caboose out of it, you'll get some kind of view, all right." She snarled, brusquely brushing past Evie and noisily plonking her backpack down into the middle of the cauldron._

 _Evie got the message, grabbed her things, and found an empty cauldron in the back of the classroom, behind a column where she couldn't see the blackboard._

" _Is that who I think it is?" she asked the small boy seated next to her, whose hair was black at the roots but white at the tips. Actually, everything he wore was black and white with a splash of red: a fur-collared jacket with one black and one white side and red leather sleeves, a black button-down shirt with streaks of white, and long shorts with one white and one black-and-white leg. It was a pretty cool look. For a bloody skunk._

" _If you mean Mal, you're right, and I would stay out of her way if I were you," he said._

" _Mal…" Evie breathed, her voice trembling nervously._

" _Yeah. Her mom's the Big Bad around here. You know—" He made horn signs with his hands on either side of his head. You didn't need to have lived on the Isle for long to know exactly whom he was talking about. Nobody dared speak her name, not unless absolutely necessary._

 _Evie gulped. Her first day, and she'd already made the worst enemy in school. It was Maleficent who had banished Evie and her mother ten years ago and caused Evie to grow up alone in a faraway castle. Her own mother might be called Evil Queen, but everyone on the Isle of the Lost knew that Maleficent wore the crown in these parts. From the looks of it, her daughter did the same in the dungeons of Dragon Hall_

 _Carlos De Vil looked up from the contraption he was assembling and shot the new girl a shy smile. "It'll be okay. Mal just likes to be left alone," he said. "She's not as tough as she seems. She only talks a big game."_

" _She does? What about you?" the blue-haired princess asked._

" _I don't have a game. Unless you consider getting beat up and pushed around a game, which in a way I guess it is. But really it's not that entertaining, unless you happen to be the one doing the beating and the pushing."_

 _The boy turned his attention back to the mess of wires in front of him. He was smaller and younger than the rest of the class, but smarter than most of them. He was an AP student: Advanced Penchant (for Evil). It was only right, since the infamous Cruella was his mother._

" _I'm Evie. What's your name?" she asked._

" _Hi, Evie, I'm Carlos De Vil," he said. "We met once before, at your birthday party." He said._

" _Oh. Sorry. I don't remember much about the party. Except how it ended."_

 _Carlos nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, I'm also your neighbor. I live just down the street in Hell Hall."_

" _You do?" Evie's eyes went wide. "But I thought no one lived there but that crazy old lady and her—"_

" _Don't say it!" he blurted._

" _Dog?" she said at the same time._

 _Carlos shuddered. "We—we don't have dogs," he said weakly. His mother had told him dogs were vicious pack animals, the most dangerous and terrifying animals on earth._

" _But she's always calling someone her pet. I thought you were a d—"_

" _I told you, don't say it!" warned Carlos. "That word is a trigger for me."_

 _Evie put up her hands. "Okay, okay." Then she winked. "But how do you fit in the crate at night?"_

 _Carlos only glared._

 _Their first class was Selfishness 101, or "Selfies" for short, taught by Mother Gothel, who took way too many self-portraits with an old Polaroid camera._

 _The photos were littered around the classroom: Mother Gothel making a duck face, sleepy-eyed Mother Gothel in an "I woke up like this" pic, Mother Gothel in "cobra" pose. But Mother Gothel herself was nowhere to be found. She was always at least a half hour late, and when she finally arrived, she was irritated to find the students there before her. "Have I taught you nothing about being fashionably, annoyingly late to every engagement?" she asked, letting out an exasperated sigh and collapsing dramatically into her chair, one hand fanned over her eyes._

 _No sooner had she said that did the door open, even though Mother Gothel had indeed locked it when she entered, and a girl with black purple streaked hair with a fringe that covered one of her magenta eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail that reached her hips in the same color streaked dread locks. The whole class stared at her, and her head bowed lower so that her fringe covered the both of her eyes._

 _Mother Gothel walked to her and looked up at her, seeing as she towered over the adult, and smiled. "Ah, a student who knows how to do it right. You must be one of the new students, Head Master Facilier's daughter, Faith, yes?"_

 _Faith silently nodded._

" _Well, take a seat, there should be an empty one somewhere." She said before turning around and writing on the board. Faith walked to the back of the classroom, purposely skipping the cauldron that Evie missed that was in the middle of the class, and to the seat that was on the other side of Evie. Occupied by one of Harriet Hooks pirate followers._

" _Could I have this seat?" She asked in a low voice._

 _The boy looked at her to say a sarcastic remark, but met her eyes and scrabbled to get up. "S-sure, o-of course prett- I mean F-Faith." The boy stammered, still looking in her eyes as he grabbed his bag and scurried to the empty desk._

 _As the lessons went on Faith began to whittle with a piece of wood as a way to entertain herself._

" _Hi," Evie whispered, looking over at Faith. The girl looked up at Evie, gave a small smile and a wave._

" _I'm Evie, Evil Queen's daughter, I'm new here to."_

 _Again, all she got was a nod in acknowledgement. Evie frowned a little but pointed over at Carlos and introduced him. "And this is Carlos, Cruella de Vil's son," Faith waved and Carlos waved back. Both teens picked up on Faith being one to not speak._

 _After that for the next half hour or so they studied Portraits of Evil, comparing the likenesses of the most famous villains in history, many of whom lived on the island and some of whom were their parents. Today's class just happened to feature Cruella De Vil._

 _Of course._

 _Carlos knew the portrait by heart, whether or not he was looking at it._

 _His mother. There she was in all her finery, with her tall hair and her long red car, her eyes wild and her furs flying in the wind._

 _He shuddered again and went back to tinkering with his machine._

 _Class ended, and students began to file out of the classroom. Evie asked Carlos what his next subject was, and Faith nodded in a way of saying that she wanted to know too. Both girl looked happy to discover they all had Lady Tremaine for Evil Schemes. "That's another advanced class—you must have a really high EQ," he told them. Only those who boasted off-the-charts evil quotients were allowed to take it. "It's this way," he said, motioning up the stairs._

 _But before they could get too far, a cold voice cut through the chatter. "Why, if it isn't Carlos De Vil," it said behind them._

 _Carlos would know that voice anywhere. It was the second-most terrifying on the island. When he turned, Mal was standing right behind him, next to Jay. Carlos automatically checked his pockets to make sure nothing had disappeared._

" _Hey, Mal," he said, trying to appear nonchalant. Mal never spoke to anyone except to scare them or to complain that they were in her way. "What's up?"_

" _Your mom's away at the Spa this weekend, isn't she?" Mal asked, elbowing Jay, who snickered._

 _Neither paid attention to Faith, who had stepped slightly in front of Carlos and had her cane pointed at their feet._

 _Carlos nodded. The Spa—really just a bit of warmish steam escaping from the crags of rock in the ruined basement of what had once been a proper building—was Cruella's one bit of comfort, her one reminder of her luxurious past._

 _How far the De Vils had fallen, just like the rest of the Isle._

" _Y-yes," he said uncertainly, unsure if that was the correct answer even though it was the truthful one._

" _Right answer," Mal said and she went to pat him on the head. But Faith gripped her wrist and pushed her away with a bit more force than expected. Mal seemed shocked, but recovered quickly, while giving a slight glare. "Anyway, I can't exactly give a party at my place without my mother yelling at everyone, not to mention the whole flying crockery issue."_

 _Carlos sighed. Like the rest of the Isle, he knew parties brought out Maleficent's worst behavior. There was nothing she hated more than people openly having fun._

" _And we can't have it at Jay's because his dad will just try to hypnotize everyone into being his servants again," Mal continued._

" _Totally," agreed Jay._

 _Carlos nodded again, although he wasn't sure where this was leading._

" _Great. Perfect. Party at your house. Tonight."_

 _Party? At his house? Did he hear that right?_

" _Wait, what? Tonight?" He blanched. "I can't have a party! I mean, you should understand, my mom doesn't really like it when people come over—and, um, I've got a lot of work to do—I have to fluff her furs, iron her undergarments, I mean—" He gulped, embarrassed._

 _Mal ignored him. "Spread the news. Hell Hall's having a hell-raiser." She seemed to warm to the thought. "Get the word out. Activate the twilight bark, or whatever it is you puppies do."_

" _Bowwow," barked Jay with a laugh._

 _Carlos glared at the two of them, in spite of himself._

" _There's a party?" Evie asked shyly. Carlos had forgotten she was standing right next to him, and he jumped at the sound of her voice._

" _Eavesdrop, much?" Mal said, snarling at her although it was obvious Evie couldn't help it, as she was standing right next to them._

 _Before Evie could protest, Mal sighed. "Of course there is. The party of the year. A real rager, didn't you hear?" Mal looked her up and down and shook her head sadly. "Oh, I guess you didn't hear." She mock-winced, looking at Carlos conspiratorially. "Everyone's going to be there." She turned to Faith, who was openly glaring. "And that includes you little miss always hated crowds," she mocked. Faith frowned at this._

" _She is-They are?" Carlos looked confused. "But you only just told me to have it—" He quickly got the message. "Everyone," he agreed._

 _Evie smiled. "Sounds awesome. I haven't been to a party in a long, long time."_

 _Mal raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I'm sorry. This is a very exclusive party, and I'm afraid you didn't get an invitation."_

" _And invitation does not have to be accepted." A new voice said. They looked over to see a boy dressed head to toe in red with short blacked bobbed hair and bright florescent green eyes._

" _And who are you?" James asked, looking at the boy with an intimidating glare._

 _The boy wasn't intimidated in the least, he swung his arm around Faith's shoulder, though it was awkward since she was a bit taller, and answered, "Hook, Blade Hook. Faith's voice and best friend, and I know for a fact, that she does not and will not want to attend your Howler."_

" _Well she better, or there will be consequences." Mal said._

 _With those parting words, Mal went ahead of them into the classroom—she was in their next class too, of course her EQ was legendary—and left them to each other. Jay went to leave, but not before walking up to Blade. His mouth opened, probably to insult the young pirate, but Faith stepped forward and met Jay head on, she easily matched his height, so the only intimidating stature he held to her was his muscle, and Faith had a secret that even matched that._

 _He growled, surprised that she neither blushed nor flinched away from him, before walking away from the four._


	2. Petty Revenge and Panick Attacks

"Sorry," Carlos mumbled. "I guess I was wrong, Mal doesn't just talk a big game."

"Yeah, me too. The party sounds like fun," Evie said sadly, she looked over to Faith, who seemed a little pale, "Are you okay?" she asked. Faith quickly shook her head and stepped out from Blade's arm and hightailed it to the bathroom. Of course, the first thing she thought of when she thought of a party was the crowd…

And that led to plenty of unpleasant thoughts.

She just needed a moment to herself before the bell rung, indicating that she would only have five minutes to reach her next class.

" _Oh darling," her mother said. "Don't let what's going on with me make you want to miss the crowd. I'll be fine right here, and I'll be here when you come back."_

" _But mama!" a small Faith said, "I don't want to leave your side for a second! Don't make me leave the house. Let me stay here, and practice."_

" _Shouldn't most kids want to leave the house?" Her mother said with a chuckle, "You'll be fine Faith. Go to that party, enjoy yourself, I'll be right here."_

Faith wiped at the tears that had dared to leak from her eyes, her mother was right, she was there, ready to talk to her when she got home. But….

It doesn't matter, she had a class to attend.

* * *

Faith made it to the classroom just as the five minute bell rung. Of course, the only available seat left in class was the one right next to Mal, and seeing as she was too tired to pull the trick she did in first block, Faith decided to just suck it up and sit next to Mal.

Mal did try to bother her, but stopped when Faith took out a small knife, full expecting it to be used on her. But much to her shock (and relief) Faith also pulled out a block of wood that had been previously whittled into, and continued with her work, ignoring the two next to her.

"Well, you look very pleased with yourself," Jay said to Mal while keeping an eye on Faith.

"I am," Mal said. "I just taught that little blueberry what it means to feel left out."

"Carlos looked like he was going to have a cow when you told him he was hosting your party."

"You mean a dog?" Mal laughed, even though the joke was getting old.

Jay elbowed her with a wink before melting away to his desk in the back of the room.

"Hello, you dreadful children," Lady Tremaine said, entering the room with a swish of her petticoats and casting a bored look at the class in front of her. "Today we will embark on our annual class project: Crafting the Ultimate Evil Scheme."

She turned toward the chalkboard and wrote in earsplitting cursive: The Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Broken Glass Slipper. "As you well know," she said, as she turned back to the students, "my manipulation of Cinderella was my greatest evil deed. For years I kept her in the attic and treated her as a virtual servant. If not for some horrid meddling mice, one of my daughters would be the queen of Charming Castle right now, instead of that ungrateful girl. And so, the goal of every teacher at Dragon Hall is to train the new generation of villains not to make the same mistakes we did. You must learn to adapt, to be faster, more cunning, and wickeder than ever before. You will spend this year working on an evil scheme of your choosing. The student with the best nasty trick will win Dragon Hall's Evilest of the Year award."

Faith looked up from her whittling, considering whether or not she should participate in this little competition. She immediately pushed the thought out of her head, all the crazy schemes she had would expose her, and the whole reason for leaving the house, and the promise she made would be broken.

Across the room, a soft giggle could be heard. It turned out to be Evie chatting cheerfully with Carlos De Vil as they played with some sort of black box on his desk. Faith turned around to see Mal smiling mischievously and furiously scribbling in her notebook. She considered spying a look but never got a chance to as the bell rang.

She sprang from her seat and walked to the back to walk with Evie and Carlos.

"Feeling better?" Carlos asked, and got a small nod in response. "So will you be coming to the party?"

Faith shook her head.

"Mal's not gonna like that."

Faith surprised them by speaking, "Well then, Mal, can suck it." Evie burst out in a giggle as Faith cracked a smile and Carlos just stood there staring up at the supposedly silent girl.

Even so, they walked out of the classroom in high spirits.

Though they soon lowered.

"Hold up," Mal said as she spotted Carlos and Evie coming toward them.

Evie looked genuinely fearful and Carlos wary, and Faith… Protective? As they approached Mal, who blocked the doorway.

"Hey, Evie, you know that party I'm having?" Mal asked.

Evie nodded. "Um, yeah?"

"I was only kidding earlier," Mal said with the sweetest smile she could manage. "Of course you're invited."

"I am?" Evie squealed. "Are you sure you want me there?"

"I don't want anything more in the world," said Mal grandly, and truthfully. "Don't miss it."

"I won't," promised Evie with a nervous smile.

"Same goes for you Faith."

Faith had fell back into her silent mode and shook her head with a smirk, almost as if to say, _Go to a party? Not in a million years…_ She then turned and left with Evie and Carlos and went off to lunch. Today's food was stale no cheese pepperoni pizza, rotten apples, sour apple juice, and sloppy cups. The three loaded their plates and looked around. Faith, being taller than the two, was able to spot Blade occupied by him and two others, only one being familiar to her.

She pulled Carlos and Evie along with her towards the end table. "Faith," Blade nodded. Faith put her plate down, just in time to, because a boy with long black hair that reached his waist and pitch black eyes engulfed her in a hug that was returned awkwardly. Of course, he was the same height as Faith was in a pair of flats, so the hug was even more awkward.

"Theo, you're crushing the poor girl," a smooth tone said. Faith glanced at the owner of the voice to see a girl with a curly Mohawk with her sides shaved, bright blue eyes, and a spray of freckles that peaked out from just beneath her black mask. "Am not! I'm not crushing you right Faith?" Theo said, releasing her from the hug and looked at her with puppy dog eyes that a teenager should _not_ be able to pull off.

Faith shook her head with a small smile and sat down with Evie and Carlos.

"So Faith, who are these two, weren't they being hassled by Mal and Jay in the halls with you?" Blade asked, glancing at the two of them. Faith rolled her eyes at him, "This is Carlos de Vil, and that's Evie Queen," she said, then she glanced over at the girl who tried to save her from a hug, "And you are?"

"Cynthia Syndrome, daughter of Syndrome! One of the greatest super villains of all time!" Cynthia said as she stood up pointing an arm up in the air and placing a hand on her hip. The group chuckled at the girl. After the introductions, the teens ate their lunch and casually chatted, insulted others, and plotted evil schemes. Well, everyone except Faith, who watched the group with slight amusement.

At the end of lunch the group went separate ways. And Faith decided she was going to lie to her father, and not see him in third block. Because once again she was in a bathroom stall having a major panic attack. She soon realized why she was only just now having a large panic attack. Before, she was at least with someone to mainly keep her mind off of the crowd, so her attention wasn't trained on virtually everything.

But on her walk to class she had been on her own, and without her attention being taken off of everyone around her, she was bombarded by the overwhelming crowd.

Carlos never shied from a mission, and if Mal wanted a howler, there was no alternative but to provide one. There was nothing he could do about it, AP Evil Penchant or not. He knew his place on the totem pole.

First things first: a party couldn't be a party without guests. Which meant people. Lots of people. Bodies. Dancing. Talking. Drinking. Eating. Playing games. He had to get the word out.

Thankfully it didn't take too long for everyone he crossed paths with at school, and the minions of everyone they crossed paths with, to spread the word. Because Carlos didn't so much issue an invitation as deliver a threat.

Literally.

He didn't mince words, and the threats only grew more exaggerated as the school day wore on. The rumors spread like the gusty, salty wind that blew up from the alligator-infested waters surrounding the island.

"Be there, or Mal will find you," he said to his squat little lab partner, Le Fou Deux, as they both dissected a frog that would never turn into a prince in Unnatural Biology class.

"Be there, or Mal will find you and ban you from the city streets," he whispered to the Gastons as they took turns stuffing each other in doomball nets in PE.

"Be there, or Mal will find you and ban you and make everyone forget you, and from this day onward you will be known only by the name of Slop!" he said almost hysterically to a group of frightened first-years gathered for a meeting of the Anti-Social Club, which was planning the school's annual Foul Ball. They turned pale at his words and desperately promised their attendance, even as they trembled at the thought.

By the end of the day, Carlos had secured dozens of RSVPs. Now, that wasn't too hard, he thought, putting away his books in his locker and releasing the first-year who'd been trapped inside.

"Hey, man." Carlos nodded.

"Thanks, I really have to pee," squeaked the unfortunate student.

"Sure," Carlos said, scrunching his nose. "Oh, and there's a party. My house. Midnight."

"I heard, I'll be there! Wouldn't miss it!" the first-year said, raising his fist to the air in excitement.

Carlos nodded, feeling mollified and more than a little impressed that even someone who'd been trapped inside a locker all day had heard the news about the party. He was a natural!

A few hours later and Carlos was home setting up for the party along with his "friends" Harry and Jace. He also called up his cousin, Diego de Vil- who was the lead singer in a local band called the Bad Apples- to see if he would perform tonight.

Luckily that was a yes, because a party wasn't a party without music. And no party would result in either death or excruciating pain for Carlos.

The band arrived not too long after, setting up the drum set by the window and practicing their songs. Their music was loud and fast, and Diego, a tall, skinny guy who sported a black-and-white Mohawk, sang out of tune. It was marvelous. The perfect soundtrack for the evening.

Next up, Carlos dug out an old-fashioned instant Polaroid camera he'd found in the attic. He fashioned a private booth by removing the sheet from a couch and rigging it on a rod in a secluded corner. "Photo booth! You take their photo," he said to Jace. "And you hand it to them," he told Harry.

Carlos admired his handiwork. "Not too shabby," he said. "Now we're talking."

"And it's about to get a whole lot better," said an unfamiliar voice.

Carlos turned to see Jay entering the room holding four huge grocery bags filled with all manner of party snacks: stinky cheese and withered grapes, deviled eggs (so appropriate) and wings (sinfully spicy), and more. Jay pulled a bottle of the island's best spicy cider out of his jacket and dumped it into the cracked punch bowl on the coffee table.

"Wait! Stop! I don't want things to get out of hand," Carlos said, trying to grab the bottle and cap it. "How did you get your hands on all of that sugar!"

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong," Jay said, grinning. "Better your party gets out of hand than Mal gets out of sorts."

Jay sank to the couch, putting his combat boots up by the punch bowl. The minions shrugged, and Carlos sighed.

The guy had a point.

"Faith?" Dr. Facilier called, it was after fifteen minutes after school and he had not seen his daughter all day. He would question whether or not she had actually attended school had it not been for Mother Gothel talking about how there was a student who finally got the point of her class and showed up late.

But she was not in her last five classes, and while he would be proud of her for skipping classes, he was a little concerned about why.

So that was why he was in the girls bathroom looking for her. Dr. Facilier listened closely and heard shallow breathing from the first, no second stall from the end and opened it to find a passed out Faith sitting on a toilet with her knees pulled up and her head buried in them.  
He sighed and shook her shoulder to wake her and was greeted with her head shooting up and wide magenta eyes looking at him shocked.

"Panic attack?"

Faith nodded.

Her father sighed and offered her his arm, Faith stood up and hooked her arm in the crook of his and walked home in silence.

Or she was hoping it would be in silence.

"I heard that there was a party," her father said, and Faith nodded.

"Are you gonna go?"

Faith responded with a rapid shake of her head, "No way in hell," she muttered under her breath.

And Dr. Facilier could understand why, amongst there being a crowd of people, which would overwhelm Faith on its own, but the sheer noise and bright flashes would be enough to make her collapse in the middle of Hell Hall. So instead of giving into the fruitless threats, Faith went home and rested peacefully.

HA! Peaceful? Faith? No she was riddled with nightmares.

* * *

More than an hour after the party had officially started, there was a sharp knock on the door. It wasn't clear what made this knock different from all the others, but different it was. Carlos leapt to his feet like a soldier suddenly called to attention. Jay stopped dancing with a posse of evil step-granddaughters. The Gastons looked up from the buffet table. Little Sammy Smee held an apple between his teeth questioningly.

Carlos steadied his nerves and opened the door. "Go away!" he yelled, using the island's traditional greeting.

Mal stood in the doorway. Backlit by the dim hall light, in shiny purple leather from head to toe, she appeared to have not so much a halo as a shimmer, like the lead vocalist of a band during a particularly well-lit rock concert—the kind with smoke and neon and bits of sparkly nonsense in the air.

Carlos half-expected her to start belting a tune with the band. Perhaps he should have felt excited that such an infamous personality had decided to come to his party.

Er, her party.

There would be no unplugging this party like one of his rebuilt stereos, not once it had begun, especially not the sort of party Mal seemed to have in mind.

"Hey, Carlos," she drawled. "Am I late?"

"Not at all," said Carlos. "Come in."

"Excited to see me?" Mal asked with a smile.

He nodded yes. Except that Carlos wasn't excited.

He was terrified.

Somewhere, deep down, he even wanted his mommy.

"Toad's-blood shots!" declared Mal, leaping into the room as if she were just another guest. "For everyone!"

And just like that, the party began again, as quickly as it had stopped. It was like the entire room exhaled in one relieved breath. Mal isn't mad. Mal isn't banning us from the streets. Mal isn't renaming us Slop.

Not yet.

She circled the party, pilfering a wallet from one of Gastons, stopping to share a mean giggle with Ginny Gothel about the dress Harriet Hook, Blade Hook's annoying little sister, was wearing, ducking under an overenthusiastic pirate swinging from the chandelier, taking a bite out of someone else's devil dog and grabbing a mouthful of dry popcorn. She walked into the hallway and bumped into Jay, who was out of breath after winning the latest dance-off.

"Having fun?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Where'd Carlos go?"

Jay laughed and pointed toward a pair of black shoes poking out from behind a sheet covering the biggest of the bookcases. "Hiding from his own party. Typical."

"And Faith?"

"Never showed. Guess she really isn't one for crowds."

Mal knew how Carlos felt, though she'd never admit it. Truly, she'd rather be almost anywhere on the whole Isle than at this party. Like her mother, she hated the sights and sounds of revelry. Fun made her uncomfortable. Laughter? Gave her hives. But a vendetta was a vendetta, and she had more planned for this evening than just Deep, Dark, Secret or Death-Defying Dare.

She should've expected Faith to be absent, Mal had only ran into her once before Faith came to her school, and that was only because Faith was trying to avoid a large crowd. Why is a mystery. Mal could have assumed that she was like Mal and just hates being around people, but she had a feeling it went deeper than that.

"Come on," said Jay. "They're playing pin the tail on the minion over there, and Jace has like, ten tails. Let's see if we can make it a dozen."

"Maybe in a minute. Where's Princess Blueberry?" Mal asked. "I did a whole loop of this party, and I didn't see her anywhere."

"You mean Evie? She's not here yet. Nobody seems to know if she's coming or not." Jay shrugged. "Castle kids."

"She has to come. She's the whole point. She's the only reason I'm even having this stupid party." Mal hated when her evil schemes didn't go exactly as planned. This was the first step in Operation Take Down Evie, Or Else, and it had to work. She sighed, staring at the door. Pretending to be having fun at a party when you hated parties was the most tiresome thing in the world.

Mal had to agree with her mother on that one.

"What are you two doing?" asked Anthony Tremaine, Lady Tremaine's sixteen-year-old grandson, a tall, elegant boy with dark hair swept off a haughty forehead. His clothes were as worn and ragged as everyone else's on the Isle, but somehow he always looked as if he was wearing custom tailoring. His dark leather coat was cut perfectly, his jeans the right dark wash. Maybe it was because Anthony had noble blood, and would probably have lived in Auradon except for his grandmother's being, you know, evil and banished. At one point he'd tried to get everyone on the Isle to call him Lord Tremaine, but the villain kids had all just laughed in his face.

"Just talking," said Mal.

"Evil plotting," said Jay.

They looked at each other.

Something about Anthony's handsome face brought to Mal's mind another handsome boy—the prince from her dream. He'd said he was her friend. His smile was kind and his voice gentle. Mal shuddered.

"Do you want something?" Mal asked Anthony coolly.

"Yes. To dance." Anthony looked at her expectantly.

She looked at him, confused. "Wait—with me?" Nobody had ever asked her before. But she'd never really been to a party before either.

"Well, I didn't mean him," Anthony said, looking awkwardly at Jay. "No offense, man."

"None taken." Jay grinned broadly, knowing how uncomfortable this made Mal. He found it hilarious. "You two kids go have fun out there. Anthony, make sure you pick a slow song," he said, as he slid away. "I have a step-granddaughter waiting for me."

Mal could feel her cheeks turning pink, which was embarrassing, because she wasn't afraid of anything, least of all dancing with snotty Anthony Tremaine.

So why are you blushing? she thought.

"I'm not really a dancer," she said lamely.

"I can show you," he said with a smooth smile.

Mal bristled. "I mean, I don't dance with anyone. Ever."

"Why not?"

Why not, indeed?

Mal thought about it. Her mind flashed back to earlier that evening. She'd been getting ready for the party, trying to choose between violet-hued holey or mauve patchwork jeans, when her mother had made a rare appearance at her door.

"Where on this dreadful island could you possibly be going?" Maleficent asked.

"To a party," Mal said.

Maleficent let out an exasperated sigh. "Mal, what have I told you about parties?"

"I'm not going to have fun, Mother. I'm going so I can make someone miserable." She almost wanted to share Operation Evie Scheme right then, but thought better of it. She would tell her mother once she had completed it successfully, lest she disappoint her once more. Maleficent never failed to remind Mal that sometimes it just didn't seem like Mal was evil enough to be her daughter. At your age I cursing entire kingdoms was a familiar phrase Mal had grown up hearing.

"So you're off to make someone miserable?" her mother cooed.

"Wretched, really!" enthused Mal.

A slow smile formed on Maleficent's thin red lips. She crossed the room and stood in front of Mal, reaching out to trace a long nail along Mal's cheek. "That's a nasty little girl," she said. Mal swore she saw a glimmer of pride flicker in her mother's cold, emerald-green eyes.

Mal snapped back to reality as the band finished a punk rock number with clashing cymbals and a drum roll. Anthony Tremaine was still staring at her.

"So why don't you dance, again?"

Because I don't have time to dance when I have evil schemes to hatch, Mal wanted to say. One that will make my mother proud of me, finally.

She turned up her nose. "I don't have to have a reason."

"You don't. But that doesn't mean you don't have one."

He caught her by surprise, because he was right.

Because she did have a reason, a very good reason to stay clear of any kind of activity that might hint at or lead to romance. Her missing father. So Anthony had her there. Mal had to give him that. But instead, she glared at him. Then she glared at him again, for good measure. "Maybe I just like to be alone." Because maybe I'm so tired of my mother looking at me like I'm weak, just because I came from her own moment of weakness.

Because maybe I need to show her that I'm strong enough and evil enough to prove to her that I'm not like my weak, human father.

That I can be just like her.

Maybe I don't want to dance because I don't want to have anything human about me.

"That can't be it." Anthony said, picking lint off his jacket. His voice was uncommonly low and pleasant, which once again brought back to Mal's mind the handsome prince by the enchanted lake. Except that Anthony wasn't quite as handsome as the boy in her dream had been, not that she thought that boy handsome, mind you. Not that she thought about him at all. "Nobody likes to be alone."

"Well, I do," she insisted. It was true.

"And besides, everybody wants to dance with a lord," he said smugly.

"Nope, not me!"

"Fine, have it your way," Anthony said, finally backing away, his head held high. In a hot second, he had already asked Harriet Hook to dance, and she'd accepted with a delighted shriek.

Mal exhaled. Phew. Boys. Dreams. Princes. It was all too much for one day.

"Mal. Mal. Earth to Mal?" Blade waved a hand in front of her face. "You okay?"

Mal looked up at him with a scowl. "And why do you care?"

"You seem out of it," the boy said before disappearing in the crowd. Odd.

Soon Jay came up and asked the same question, and for that all Mal did was nod. Still out of it, it seems. She was thinking back to some, interesting dreams.

Jay frowned, holding out a cup of cider. "Here. It's like you've powered down, or something."

Mal realized that she hadn't moved from the front hall. She'd been standing there, stupidly frozen, ever since Anthony had left her side. That was three songs ago, and the Bad Apples were playing their current hit, "Call Me Never."

She perked up, not because of the cider or the catchy song but because, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Evie through the floor-to-ceiling window in the foyer. She was coming down the road in a brand-new rickshaw, her pretty V-braid gleaming in the moonlight. She thinks she is so special. Well, I'll show her, Mal thought. Her eyes wandered over the room and rested upon a familiar-looking door.

It was the door that led to Cruella De Vil's storage closet. Mal only knew it was there because she and Carlos had once accidentally come across it when they were working on a skit about evil family trees in sixth grade, and Mal had been bored and had decided to go poking around Hell Hall. Cruella's closet was not for the faint of heart.

Mal would never forget that day. It was the kind of closet that would get the best of anyone. Especially a princess who was making her way up the steps to the front door and would appear at any moment now.

"Jay," she said, motioning to the front door. "Let me know when Evie arrives."

"Huh? What? Why?"

"You'll see," she told him.

"All part of the evil scheme, huh?" he said, happy to do her bidding. Jay was always up for a good prank.

But Carlos went white-faced when he saw where Mal was heading. "Don't—" he shouted. He shook off his sheet, almost tripping over the fabric in an attempt to get to the door before Mal could open it all the way.

It slammed shut. Just in time.

But Mal crossed her arms. She wasn't backing down from this one. It was just too perfect. She glanced out the window again. Princess-Oh-So-Fashionably-Late was at the front door now.

Mal raised her voice. "New game! Seven Minutes in Heaven! And you've never played Seven Minutes if you haven't played it in a De Vil closet."

* * *

" _Can she really see us?"_

" _I think so Jered, I think so."_

" _Please dear! Tell my little Harriet and Blade that I miss them!"_

" _Let me out! My time isn't over, you can let me out!"_

" _The poor dear, she can probably hear everything, even us, and were downstairs."_

"Shut, up…"

Ten miles away and she can still here "Call me Never" booming from Hell Hall. But it did nothing to dim out the voices.

" _Help us."_

" _Please I just want to say one thing to my husband."_

 _"Why can't I leave?"_

"Shut. Up."

" _Quiet the mouth on you, how rude."_

" _It's not like you can't help us."_

" _You're a horrible child. You know that right?"_

"I said… To. SHUT UP!" Faith screamed, her arms pushing the bed that she was hiding under across the room. The mattresses remained unharmed, but the bedframe shattered into pieces. The voices silenced. Faith was now huddled in a corner, her hands covered her ears and her eyes were shut tight. The distinct smell of smoke mixed with rose's floats by her before disappearing.

Finally, some piece and-

"Faith?"

Damn it, spoke to soon.

A hand rested on her shoulder and she jerked away, looking up at her father through squinted eyes. When she saw the concerned look she began to worry. She sat up straighter and looked around the room with wide eyes. The apparitions were gone… Thankfully, but the damage that they caused weren't. Faith had long since been in her freak out a few minutes after her father fell asleep. She had kicked her already worn dresser in half, shattered a window with her fist. And yes, her bed did indeed lay in pieces on the ground. The wallpaper was nonexistent and her school supplies were strewed out across the room.

She looked down and noticed the jagged cuts that ran up her arms and finally noticed that the top half of her purple nightgown was stained in blood.

Maleficent, what a mess.

* * *

 **To clear some things up, yes Faith can hear ghost, it's why she has an aversion for crowds. It's also a curse for her sense it made all six senses extremely and painfully sensitive. What else?**  
 **I know Dr. Facilier seems to be caring, and that may seem out of character... But I take it as a bad sign when a parent in this part of the world cares, it makes the situation to dire to ignore. But that's just my opinion.**  
 **Oh, so as you can tell, I'm not just sticking to one part of the Disney universe (i.e. princesses) but going into Pirates of the Caribbean and The Incredibles.**  
 **And much more.**  
 **So did you like it?**  
 **Yes no maybe so, leave a comment down below?**  
 **Thank you so much for the likes and comments, it warms my heart to see people leave them, or to see that a heart has been clicked.**

 **~Bye**


	3. Evil Lives, as do Spirits

"Who wants to go first?" Mal asked. The words were barely out of Mal's mouth before most of the evil step-granddaughters practically trampled her to get to the door. They loved playing Seven Minutes and were enthusiastically wondering with whom they would end up inside. A few of them puckered their lips and powdered their noses while fluttering their eyelashes at Jay, who was stationed by the front door like a sentry.

"Me! Me! Me!" yelped the step-granddaughters.

"She does," Jay called, holding a very recognizable blue cape.

"I do? What do I want to do?" asked the cape's owner.

Mal smiled.

Evie had arrived.

"Evie, sweetie! So glad you could make it!" Mal said, throwing her arms theatrically around the girl and giving her a giant and fake embrace. "We're playing Seven Minutes in Heaven! Want to play?"

"Uh, I don't know," said Evie, looking around the party nervously.

"It'll be a scream," said Mal. "Come on, you want to be my friend, don't you?"

Evie stared at Mal. "You want me to be your friend?"

"Sure—why not?" Mal led her to the closet door and opened it.

"But doesn't a boy go in here with me?" Evie asked as Mal shoved her inside the storage room. For someone castle-schooled, Evie sure knew her kissing games.

"Did I say Seven Minutes in Heaven? No, you're playing Seven Minutes in Hell!" Mal cackled; she couldn't help it. This was going to be so much fun.

The crowd around the hallway had scattered in fear after it was clear Mal had no interest in having other people join the game—or Evie—inside the locked room.

But Carlos remained standing, his face as white as the tips of his hair. "Mal, what are you doing?"

"Playing a dirty trick—what does it look like I'm doing?"

"You can't leave her in there! Remember what happened to us?" he asked, motioning angrily to his leg, which had two distinct white scars on the calf.

"I do!" Mal said gleefully. She wondered why Carlos was so concerned about Evie. It wasn't as if they'd been taught to care about other people.

But Carlos soon made clear that he wasn't being altruistic. "If she's not able to get out on her own, I'm going to have to clean up the mess! And my mother will freak out! You can't leave her in there!" he whispered fiercely, anxiety about Cruella's punishment written all over his face.

"Fine, go get her," said Mal with a sly smile on her face, knowing full well that he wouldn't.

Carlos quaked in his scuffed loafers. Mal knew there was nothing he wanted to do less than go back in there again. He remembered all too well what had happened to him and Mal in sixth grade.

There was a scream from behind the door.

Mal wiped her hands. "You want her out? You get her out." Her job was done.

Her evil scheme had worked. This was going to be a real howler.

Evie was in quiet the pickle, wasn't she? When the door closed the first thing she thought of was how she spent hours on picking the perfect dress for a party, for nothing. She began to walk forward, the place wasn't so bad, she had been in worse. But not even a step forward and her foot struck something cold, and the eerily quiet coat closet was broken by the loud, echoing snap of steel meeting steel.

Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light to reveal fur traps littered all over the floor. Lying in wait for the next poor animal (or in this case party guess) to wander into its clutches. There were so many, one wrong step would mean the loss of a leg or two. Evie turned back to the door and tried to open it, but it was no use. She was locked in there.

"Help! Help! Let me out!" She yelled.

At first there was no answer, all there was, was the band playing loudly. But an arm wrapped around Evie's waist and a head bent next to her ear. "Once you walk through that door it locks. There's no point in trying to get someone to let you out."

Evie squeaked and turned around to see Theo standing behind her. "H-how did you- when did you?"

"Come into Cruella's closet? Mal's not as fast as she thinks she is. Now come on, I had a feeling that something was going to happen, and what kind of friend to Faith would I be if I let something happen to you?"

He grabbed Evie and lifted her up bridal style and charged through the hall. She admired the way his body twisted and shifted to avoid all the traps that was in there way. The chorus of snapping metal jaws rang behind them, one after another, one nearly caught the back of Theo's shoe even. He yanked a door open and slammed it shut behind them, putting her down roughly.

Evie was thrown off from the sudden shift that she stumbled forward into a dark, furry presence.

Was it a bear? A horrible shaggy monster? Had she gotten out of the frying pan only to fall into the fire? Evie twisted and turned, but only succeeded in wrapping herself deeper in fur—dense, thick, woolly fur—with two armholes?

This was no bear…no monster. She was trapped in a fur coat! Evie tried to shake it off, tried to shrug it off her shoulders, but she was smack-dab in the middle of dozens of coats, all of them black or white or black and white, made of the thickest, lushest hides—there was spotted ocelot and dip-dyed mink, silky sable and shiny skunk, all of them packed in like sardines, so full, so fluffy, so thick. This was Cruella De Vil's fur closet, her wondrous collection, her obsession, her greatest weakness.

And those fur traps back there were her security system, just in case anyone got too close to the stuff.

Evie finally managed to untangle herself and push aside the wall of fur, just as a hand grasped her wrist and pulled her through to the other side.

"You okay?" It was Carlos.

Evie took a deep breath. "Yes. I think so. Do I win the game?" she asked drily.

Carlos laughed. "Mal's going to be annoyed you survived."

"Where are we?" Evie looked around. There was a lumpy mattress on the floor next to an ironing board and a washbasin, along with a vanity table that held dozens of white-and-black wigs.

When Carlos looked embarrassed, she realized it was his bedroom. Cruella's fur closet opened onto a dressing room, where her son slept.

"Oh."

Carlos shrugged. "its home."

"Wait, where'd Theo go?"

"What do you mean?"

"Theo, he saved me in there."

"I didn't even know he was here. But I wouldn't be to worried, I heard that he could be one to pull miraculous disappearing acts."

"Oh."

Evie looked around Carlos' "room" again.

Even if her mother annoyed her sometimes, at least Evil Queen was obsessed with Evie's good looks; and even when she wasn't worried that perhaps Evie might not be the fairest of them all, she treated her daughter like the princess she was. Evie's room might be dark and musty, but she had a real bed, not a makeshift one, with a thick blanket and relatively soft pillows.

"It's not so bad in here, really!" Evie said. "I'm sure it's cozy and, hey…you'll never catch a cold. You can just use one of her fur coats for a blanket, right?" It was awfully drafty in the room: like her own home, Hell Hall wasn't insulated for winter.

Carlos shook his head. "I'm not allowed to touch them," he said, trying to put the furs back in order. They were so heavy, and there were so many of them. "I'll fix them later. She doesn't come back till Sunday."

Evie nodded. "This is all my mother's fault. If she hadn't tried to challenge Maleficent's leadership when they first came to the Isle, none of this would have happened."

"Your mother actually challenged Maleficent?" Carlos goggled. It was unheard of.

"Well, she is a queen, after all," Evie pointed out. "Yeah, she was angry that everyone on the island decided to follow Maleficent instead of her." She walked over to the vanity and began to fix her makeup, delicately powdering her nose and applying pink gloss to her full rosebud lips. "And now here we are."

"Mal will get over it," he said hopefully.

"Are you kidding? A grudge is a grudge is a grudge. She'll never forgive me. Didn't you listen in Selfie class? I thought you were so smart." Evie smiled wryly. "Oh well, I should just face it. Go back to our castle and never come out."

"But you're not, right?"

"No, I guess not." Evie put away her compact. "Hey," she said softly. "I have an old comforter I never use…I mean, if you get cold and you can't…Oh, never mind." She'd never had any siblings, so she had no idea what having a little brother would be like. But if Evil Queen had ever stopped looking at herself in the mirror long enough to have another kid, Evie thought it would be tolerable to have a little brother like Carlos.

Carlos looked as if he didn't know what to say.

"Forget I said anything," said Evie in a rush.

"No, no, bring it. I mean, no one's ever cared whether I'm warm or not," he said, blushing red as his voice trailed off. "Not that you care, of course."

"I certainly don't!" agreed Evie. Caring was definitely against the rules at Dragon Hall and could turn anyone into a laughingstock. "We were going to throw it out."

"Excellent, just consider my home your Dumpster."

"Er, okay."

"Do you think you might have a pillow you were going to toss out too? I've never had a pillow." Carlos turned red again. "I mean, I've had tons of pillows, of course. So many! We have to keep throwing them away. I get so many pillows. I mean, who's never had a pillow in their life? That's preposterous."

"Yeah, I think we were going to throw away a pillow," Evie said, turning just as red as Carlos, even as a warm, sunny sensation had taken over her chest. She changed the subject. "Still working on that machine of yours?"

"Yeah, wanna see?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," Evie replied, following Carlos out of the room toward the back of the house, away from the party. Carlos slipped outside, holding the door open for Evie.

"Where are we going?"

"To my lab," Carlos replied, pulling out a matchbook and lighting a candle to lead the way into the weedy backyard.

"Your what?"

"My science lab. Don't worry, I don't, like, sacrifice toads or something."

Evie let out a hesitant laugh.

They approached a huge, gnarled tree with a rope ladder. Carlos started climbing up it. "I have to keep it all in my tree house. I'm afraid my mom is going to get some big ideas and turn my chemicals into makeup and hair products."

Evie scrambled up the ladder behind him. The tree house was more elaborate than any she'd ever seen, with miniature turrets and a tiny balcony that looked out onto the dark forest below. Inside, Evie spun around, gaping. The walls were lined with shelves of glass beakers, vials, and jars containing various neon-colored liquids. In the corner sat a small, old television with about fifteen different antennas strapped to it.

"What is all this?" Evie asked, picking up a jar of something white and snowy.

"Oh, that's from Chem Lab. It's sodium polyacrylate—I was trying to see if I could use it as a sponge when mixed with water," Carlos said. "But here, this is what I wanted to show you." He pulled out the wire-box contraption he'd been working on in class. "I think I got the battery to work."

Carlos fiddled with a few buttons and flicked a few switches. It sputtered to life, then died. His face fell. He tried again. This time, it emitted a high-pitched squeal before dying.

He looked up at Evie sheepishly. "Sorry, I thought I had it."

Evie looked at the black box. "Maybe try connecting this wire to that one?" she suggested.

Carlos peered at the wires. "You're right, they're in the wrong place." He switched the wires and hit the switch.

A powerful electric burst shot out of the box, sending Carlos and Evie flying back against the wall and falling to the floor. The beam of light burst up toward the plywood ceiling, blasting a hole in the tree-house roof and up to the sky.

"Maleficent!" Carlos cursed.

"Oh my goblins!" Evie screamed. "What just happened?"

They both scrambled out onto the tree-house balcony and stared up at the sky, where the light was streaking all the way up, through the clouds, up, up, up, all to the way to the dome!

The light seared through the barrier as easily as it had burned a hole in the tree-house roof.

Lightning flashed, and the very earth shook with a supersonic rumble. For a second they could see through the dome and directly into the night sky. The black box began to emit a strange beeping noise.

Carlos and Evie scrambled back inside, and Carlos picked up the box. It was making a sound neither of them had ever heard before.

And for a brief moment, there was something on the television in the room, which had burst to life all of a sudden.

"Look!" Evie cried.

The screen was flashing with so many different scenes it was dizzying. For a moment they saw a talking dog (Carlos screamed at the sight); then it switched to a pair of twins who were nothing alike (one was boyish and athletic and the other was sort of a diva, and they both sort of looked like Mal, except with yellow hair); then it switched again to two teenage boys who seemed to be running a hospital for superheroes.

"Look at all these different television shows!" Carlos said. "I knew it! I knew it! I knew there had to be other kinds!"

Evie laughed. Then the screen flickered and went dark again, and the box in Carlos's hands went dead. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I think maybe it worked? It penetrated the dome for a second, didn't it?" he asked, approaching the box fearfully and touching it with the end of one finger. It was hot to the touch, and he pulled his hand away quickly.

"It must have," Evie said. "That's the only explanation."

"Promise you won't tell anyone about what happened, especially about the dome. We could get in real trouble, you know."

"I promise," said Evie, making an X with her fingers behind her back.

"Good."

"You want to go back to the party?"

"Do we have to?" she asked, unwilling to find herself trapped in another closet.

"You have a point. And that show you like on Auradon News Network, the one that features the Prince of the Week, is going to be on in five minutes."

"Excellent!"

Unbeknown to the two villain children, far off in the distance, deep in the heart of the forbidden fortress, hidden behind a gray misty fog on the other side of the island, a long black scepter with a jewel on its end came back to life, glowing green with power again. The most powerful weapon of darkness had been awakened for a moment.

Next to the hidden staff, a stone statue of a raven began to vibrate, and when the bird began to shake its wings, the stone crumbled into dust, and in its place was that black-eyed fiend, that wicked fairy's familiar, the one and only Diablo, Maleficent's best and first friend.

Diablo shook his feathers and gave a throaty, triumphant cry. Evil would fly again.

Evil lives.…

"Ow… Ow. Damn it dad! Do you, or do you not know how to clean and wrap a wound?" Faith said, snatching her arm away from Dr. Facilier's hand. Her father rolled his eyes at her, grabbing her arm and continuing to clean it.

When it was done and wrapped Facilier left with a small kiss to his daughter's forehead.

Faith went back to her room and looked at the damage. The already pealing wallpaper was now obliterated, and debris skittering across the room from the breeze that her forever open window let in. Her mattress was fine, her bed frame on the other hand…

The dresser she kicked in half had clothes spilling out of it.

It's been like this for a while. Faith was "blessed" when she was born, the spirits of the Other Side granted Faith a little control of her power on the Island, enough to heal, and possess things. And her senses were heightened. But gifts always came at a price. Her heightened senses, all _six_ of them, were heightened on a spiritual plane. So ghost, yeah, they always unnerved her. And ghost always seemed to be attracted to those who can hear them.

Faith sighed and began to pick everything up, but then she heard a large boom, she looked up and saw a crack in the sky, an opened in the dome!  
Her hands immediately went up to her ears, she barely covered them before she heard the piercing shrieks in the night. She paled and dropped to the ground.

Mal sighed.

Foiled again.

Just like her mother, whose own curse had failed.

Were they destined for failure forever?

This party was a bust. It was definitely time to go. Even the evil step-granddaughters looked tired of pretending to hate being chased by the rowdy pirates.

Mal tossed her empty cider cup on the floor and left without a backward glance. She spent the night rearranging her neighbors' overgrown lawns, swapping lawn gnomes, mailboxes, and outdoor furniture. She amused herself doing some light redecorating by toilet-papering a couple of houses and egging a few rickshaws. Nothing like a little property damage to make her feel better. She left her mark on each house with the message Evil lives! spray-painted on the lawn, to remind the island people exactly what they stood for and what they had to be proud of.

Feeling as if she had salvaged the evening, it was with some surprise and not a little shock that when she rolled home to the Bargain Castle, she found her mother awake and awaiting her.

"Mother!" Mal yelped, startled to see Maleficent sitting on her huge high-backed green chair in front of the stained-glass window. It was her throne, as it were—her seat of darkness.

"Hello, dear," Maleficent's cold voice said. "Do you know what time it is, young lady?"

Mal was confused. Since when had Maleficent imposed a curfew? It wasn't as if her mother cared where she went or when she came home, now—did she? After all, the woman wasn't called Maleficent for nothing. "Two in the morning?" Mal finally guessed.

"I thought so," Maleficent said, pushing up a purple sleeve and correcting the time on her wristwatch. She pulled the sleeve down and looked at her daughter.

Mal waited, wondering where this was going. She hadn't seen her mother in a while, and when they did come in contact, Mal was often taken aback by how small her mother looked, these days.

The Mistress of Darkness had literally shrunk with the reduction in her circumstances. Whereas once she had been towering, she was now almost a miniature version of her former self—petite, even. If she stood up, one could see that Mal was taller than she was by a few inches.

Yet the distinctive menace had not abated, it just came in a tinier package. "Where was I? Oh yes, Evil lives!" Maleficent hissed.

"Evil lives—exactly, Mother." Mal nodded. "Is that what you want to talk to me about? The tags around town? Pretty good, right?"

"No, you misunderstand me, dear," her mother said, and it was then that Mal noticed that her mother was not alone. She was petting a black raven that was perched on the arm of her chair.

The raven croaked, flew to Mal's shoulder, and nipped her ear.

"Ouch!" she said. "Stop that!"

"That's just Diablo. Don't be jealous my little friend; that's just Mal," Maleficent said dismissively. And even if Mal knew that her mother couldn't care less about her (Mal tried not to take it personally, as her mother couldn't care less about anyone), it still stung to hear it said aloud so bluntly.

"Diablo? That's Diablo?" said Mal. She knew all about Diablo, Maleficent's first and only friend. Her mother had told her the story many times: how, twenty years ago, now, Maleficent had battled Prince Phillip as a great black fiery dragon but had been struck down, betrayed, by a weapon of justice and peace that some irritatingly good fairies had helped aim right into her heart. Maleficent had believed herself dead and passed from this world, but instead she had woken up the next day, alone and broken, on this terrible island.

The only remnant of the battle was the scar on her chest where the sword had struck, and every so often she would feel the phantom pain of that wound. She had told Mal many times how, when she woke up, she had realized that those awful good fairies had taken everything away from her—her castle, her home, even her favorite pet raven.

"The one and only Diablo," purred Maleficent, actually looking happy for once.

"But how? He was frozen! They turned him into stone!" said Mal.

"Yes, they did, those horrid little beasts. But he's back! He's back! And Evil lives!" Maleficent declared, with a witch's cackle for good measure.

Okay. Her mother was getting just a wee bit repetitive.

Mal gave her mother her best eye-roll. To the rest of the fools, minions, and morons on the island, Maleficent was the scariest thing with two horns around; but to Mal, who had seen her mother put goblin jelly on toast and drop crumbs all over the couch, polish her horns with shoe polish, and sew the raggedy hemline of her purple cape, she was just her mother, and Mal wasn't that scared of her. Okay, so she was still scared of her mother, but she wasn't like Carlos-scared.

Maleficent stood from her chair, her green eyes blazing into Mal's identical ones. "My Dragon's Eye—my scepter of darkness—Diablo says it has been awakened! Evil lives!—and best of all, it is on this island!"

"Your scepter? Are you sure?" Mal asked skeptically. "Hard to believe King Beast of Auradon would leave such an impressive weapon on the Isle."

"Diablo swears he saw it, didn't you, my sweet?" Maleficent purred. The raven cawed.

"So where is it?" asked Mal.

"Well, I don't speak Raven, do I? It's on this blasted piece of rock somewhere!" Maleficent fumed, tossing her cape back.

"Okay, then. But so what?"

"So what?! The Dragon's Eye is back! Evil lives! It means I can have my powers back!"

"Not with the dome still up," Mal pointed out.

"It doesn't matter. I thought those three despicably good fairies had destroyed it, but they had only frozen it, like they had Diablo. It is alive, it is out there somewhere, and best of all—you—my dear—will get it for me!" Maleficent announced with a flourish.

"Me?"

"Yes. Don't you want to prove yourself to me? Prove that you are worthy of being my daughter?" her mother asked quietly.

Mal didn't answer.

"You know how much you are a disappointment to me, how when I was your age, I had armies of goblins under my control, but you…what do you do—put your little drawings all over town? You need to do MORE!" she seethed, standing up from her chair. Diablo flapped his wings and cawed in agreement.

Mal tried not to show her feelings. She'd thought those tags were pretty cool. "Fine! Fine! I'll go get your scepter!" she agreed, if only to stop her mother from raging.

"Wonderful." Maleficent touched her heart, or the hole in her chest where it should have been. "When that sword pierced my dragon hide, and I fell off that cliff twenty years ago, I was sure I had died. But they brought me back to suffer a fate worse than death, much worse. But one day, I will have my revenge!"

Mal nodded. She'd heard the spiel so many times, she could chant it in her sleep. Maleficent took her hand, and they chorused, "Revenge on the fools who imprisoned us on this cursed island!"

Maleficent urged Mal closer so that she could whisper a warning in her ear.

"Yes, Mother," said Mal, to show she understood.

Maleficent grinned. "Now, get out of here and bring it back, so we can be free of this floating prison once and for all!"

Mal trudged up to her room. She'd forgotten to tell her mother about the mean trick she'd pulled on Evie at the party, not that it would have been evil enough for the great Maleficent, either. Nothing was. Why did she even bother?

She climbed out her window and onto the balcony where could see across the entire island and the shining spires of Auradon glimmered in the distance.

A few minutes later, she heard the sound of jiggling trinkets, which meant Jay had dropped by to annoy her or to steal a late-night snack.

"I'm out here," she called.

"You left before the fun really began," he said, meaning the party. "We turned the ballroom into a mosh pit and crowd-surfed." He joined her on the balcony, a bag of smelly cheese curls in his hand.

She shrugged.

"What's with the rude raven?" he asked, chomping noisily on the snack, his fingers turning a fluorescent shade of orange.

"That's Diablo. You know, my mom's old familiar. He's back."

Jay stopped chewing. "He's what?"

"He's back. He got unfrozen. So now Mom thinks the spell over the island might be unraveling, somehow."

Jay's eyes grew wide.

Mal looked away and continued, "That's not all. Diablo swears the Dragon's Eye is back too. That he saw it glow back to life. You know, her scepter, her greatest weapon, the one that controls all the forces of evil and darkness, blah blah blah. She wants me to find it, and use it to break the curse over the island."

Jay let out a loud laugh. "Well, she's really gone off the cliff into the deep end to take a swim with the killer alligators, then, hasn't she? That thing is hidden forever and ever, and ever and ever and—"

"Ever?" Mal smirked.

"Exactly."

Mal turned away, wanting to change the subject. "Do you ever think about what it's like over there?" she asked, nodding toward Auradon.

Jay scoffed. "Yeah, horrible. Sunny, and happy, and…horrible. I thank my unlucky stars every day that I'm not there."

"Yeah, I know. But, I mean—you never get sick of this place, like you want a change?" she asked, brooding.

Jay looked at her quizzically.

"Never mind." Mal didn't think he would understand. She continued staring into the night. Jay continued munching on his cheese curls and fiddling with some newly stolen costume jewelry.

"We have to find it," Mal said to Jay as an icy wind whipped up from the sea below and pulled her from her memory. "The Dragon's Eye. It's here."

"Mal, it's not poss—"

"We have to," Mal said.

"Eh," Jay replied shrugging his shoulders and turning toward the window to go back inside. "We'll see."

Mal took one last look out at the horizon to the bright, sparkling speck in the distance. She felt a pang in her gut, like longing. But what for, she couldn't say.

" _Oh my dear, what was that?"_ a ghost shouted, her arms wrapped around Faith, trying to comfort her, but instead sent shivers up Faith's spine and left her in a cold, shaking mess.

"I… Don't… Know…. But _I can't breathe."_ Faith said, rolling away from the ghost hug.

" _Help! Help! My husband, he just vanished! He disappeared as soon as the barrier shattered!"_ another ghost yelled, her ghostly form running around her room in terror.

"Wait, its shattered?"

" _Well, there's a whole… Oh! It doesn't matter, my husband!"_

"No wonder you're all suddenly here."

If the barrier is opened, even just a little, then magic is stronger, and so are the spirits.

The dead is livid, and for the moment, so is she.

* * *

 **And yes, to guest, this book does have Isle of the Lost in it, copied and paste, I don't know if you were pointing out the obvious to be rude, or if you were saying that to future people who will be all like "Om my god, no creative bone in your body." But what eves. Yes, this book is not original, its all Isle of the lost with minor changes to fit my OC's into this plot and future plots. If this was not clear and it offends people, then I guess I apologize...**

 **Sorry?**


	4. Break Downs and We're Off!

"Faith!" Blade yelled, looking at the girl who was curled up on her mattress, glaring at him from beneath her sheets.  
"What?"

"Training? _Before_ school starts? Remember?" Theo said, looking down and the begrudged girl.

Faith groaned, and hid under her covers. "No."

"Faith, you've got to get up," Blade sighed, Faith responded with another no, both boys looked at each other with a grin.

Faith was just falling back to sleep when her world suddenly flipped over. She landed on the ground in a tangle of blankets, and hissed when she landed on her injured arm. Faith got up and glared at the two, her anger evident, blood was starting to peak out from the bandages, the skin that had slightly healed tore open, creating misshaped red dots.

"What in the hell happened?" Theo said, taking her arm to examine it.

"I got in a fight with my window."

Theo sighed, "Either way, you have got to train."

Five minutes later and Faith was running ahead of Blade but behind Theo, the ghost that float pass her blurred by. Her arm forgotten. Theo took a sharp turn then began to climb up to building, hopping between both walls to advance upward. Behind her, Faith could hear Blade cursing Theo for changing course. She shrugged and climbed up after him by grabbing onto the window ledges.

As soon as Faith got to the top she ducked, narrowly avoiding the foot that was sent out towards her. Theo was standing in front of her, in a fighting stance, a smirk on his face. Faith cracked a smile as well, looking behind her to see Blade in a similar stance.

Oh, training had begun indeed.

Enrichment was literally about enriching oneself by taking from others. The class studied lock-picking techniques, shoplifting secrets—which meant it was Jay's favorite class for the obvious reason—being a thief and all—and today's guest lecturer was none other than the school's creepy headmaster himself, Dr. Facilier.

He took the seat next to Faith, who seemed to be a little less dressed up today. She had on a pair lavender purple jeans, with ripped holes that started at the knee, and reached her lower shin. A pair of boots, still high heeled, meaning she was at his height again today. She wore a purple plaid flannel that went over a red t-shirt that said, **Good morning! I SEE THE ASSASSINS HAVE FAILED**. Faith chose to accessorize with two chokers, silver bangles, and dark red lipstick.

"There are many kinds of thieves," Dr. Facilier said in his silky whisper, turning Jay's attention away from Faith's appearance, "One can shoplift at the bazaar, or burglarize a home, or steal a rickshaw. But these are, of course, petty exercises. Mere child's play."

Jay wanted to argue. After all, he had Dr. Facilier's bolo tie in his pocket, didn't he? What are you calling child's play, old man?

"But a true villain has larger ambitions—to steal an identity, a fortune—someone's entire life! Can someone give me an example of such villainy? Such great enrichment?" The good doctor surveyed the room. "Yes, Carlos?"

"My mother wanted to steal one hundred and one puppies!" Carlos said, almost in a yelp. "That was large."

"Yes, and that was an extravagantly evil dream." Dr. Facilier smiled, and everyone in the room shuddered at the sight. "Anyone else? Examples?"

"My mother stole Rapunzel's magic to keep herself young?" Ginny Gothel offered. "Rapunzel had really…large…hair?"

"You have a point there. A very good example surely, of enriching oneself through the abuse of others," Dr. Facilier nodded. He walked over to the blackboard. "Now, I understand that the advanced students among you have your project for Evil Schemes due."

A few heads nodded, including Jay's and Carlos's. Faith continued to not care and whittle at her wood block.

"My own evil scheme was the height of enrichment. Does anyone know it?"

The room was silent, except for Faith rolling her eyes with a scoff. Dr. Facilier looked insulted, and pointedly glared at his daughter. He muttered something about "kids these days" and resumed his lecture.

"For my evil scheme, I had turned Prince Naveen into a frog, and voodoo'd his valet to look like him. My plan was for his valet to marry Charlotte La Bouff, and once he did, I would kill her father and take his fortune. If I had succeeded, I would have stolen a man's identity and another man's fortune. A stroke of enrichment!"

Cue Faith now being absolutely gone from the class, Jay chuckled a little bit. Nothing like having your parent's brag about their schemes.

The class clapped. A beaming Dr. Facilier bowed, stiffly and quickly.

"Except you failed," Carlos pointed out, Faith chuckled when the room was silent again.

"Yes," Dr. Facilier brooded, his face falling. "That's true. I failed. Disastrously, unfortunately, and decidedly. I was a complete and utter failure. I won neither the princess nor the fortune. Hence, the founding of Dragon Hall, where we must learn from our failures and teach the next generation of villains to do what we were not able to do."

Harriet Hook raised her hand. "What's that?"

"Prepare! Research! Be more evil! Work faster! Think bigger!" Dr. Facilier urged. "So that when the time comes, when the dome falls—and magic is returned to us—and it will be, my children, it will be; evil like us cannot be contained—you will be ready."

Jay scribbled on his notepad. Be more evil. Think bigger.

After her father finished his little lecture, he left the rest of the students to work on their schemes. Faith began to whittle her wood block again, seeing as she wasn't going to take part in this assignment. No sooner had she finished one curve of the wood block did the familiar smell of roses and smoke breeze past her. Her whole body froze and the wood block and whittle knife dropped on the table with a small clatter.

 _Just ignore them, just ignore them._ Faith repeated, she picked up her items and slowly began to whittle again, ignoring the way her eyes hurt when a figure stepped in front of her with a bright light that emitted from it.  
 _Just ignore them._ The scent that the figure possessed was now washing over her in strong waves. It effected Faith so strongly, that she had to put down her items and clinched her fist under the desk so that they would stop shaking.  
 _Ignore them._

" _Excuse me dear?"_ the voice asked in a soft tone. Faith dared not look up but instead crossed her arms over the desk and laid her head down. Like she was trying to go to sleep. " _Dearie, I know you can hear me."_

Faith didn't flinch.

The woman's hands brushed against the nape of Faith's neck, making her shiver in tremendous chills.

"Go away," she muttered in a low tone, so low that no one else in the class could hear her.

" _I know you can hear me!"_

Faith peaked out from under her arms to glare at the woman. Her ghostly figure was so bright it was almost impossible to make out her features, as she had to blink every two seconds. She was middle age, with dark hair that might've once been red. Her eyes were dulled over, like all ghost, and her ebony skin was the only thing that wasn't dulled by death. She wore the normal garb that replaced the clothes that one dies in once they enter purgatory, a white tunic and flowing pants.

" _See, you know I'm here! Help me! I just want to say goodbye to my baby, I just want to-"_

"Faith?" Blade asked from the seat beside her, unintentionally calling attention of everyone in the back row, namely Jay, who looked over at her shaking form, her head was back down in the folds of her arms.  
"I'm fine," she muttered, though, it was so horse that he highly doubted it. "Just get me out of this classroom as soon as the bell rings."

" _Look at me! I want you to help me tell my daughter that I miss her! I want to say goodbye to her! Why won't you let me? Are you that cruel?"_

Faith didn't even know that the bell rang till Blade put a hand on her shoulder, with all his stuff and her bag and jacket swung over one shoulder. Blade wrapped his arm around her waist and helped guide her out of class, unaware of two malicious teens following behind.

"What do you think is up with with her?" Mal asked, looking back at Jay, who stopped her on the way to her next class to follow Faith and Blade.  
"I don't know, but she seemed to be real shaken up."

Up ahead Faith nearly collapsed in Blade's arms, "Whoa, don't pass out yet, were almost outside," Blade told her.  
"You do realize that their following us, right?" she murmured.

"The ghost? Yeah."

"No, not the ghost, Jay and Mal," Faith hissed. Blade looked back to see a flash of purple disappearing around the corner.  
"Do you want me to handle them?"

Faith quickly gave a shake of her head, "No, just, get me out of here."

Mal peaked around the corner to see that they were moving forward again. Foolish, do they really think no one's following them? Jay looked down and shook his head at her, "'Yes, they do know that were behind them. They just don't care."

"If it's some kind of sickness, we could use it against her. I don't know why, but having some sort of hold over Faith seems important."

"For the quest for the Dragon Eye?"

"Shout it out loud why don't you!" Mal hissed, the two of them still following Faith outside. Blade led her over to a bench, far away from the school. "Can you breathe now?" Blade asked Faith as she sat down.

"Barely, Other Side, this woman is relentless!" Faith cursed. Her hand clenching the metal bench beneath her. Jay and Mal stood as close as they dared, and watched as bright red hand prints seemed to appear on her arms, and Faith clenched the bench tighter, the metal bending in her hand.

"Faith?"

" _Leave me alone!"_ Faith yelled and stood up, ripping the bench out of the ground and throwing it across the street. Mal felt her jaw drop. _Did she just?_

Faith whirled around and stared at the two hiding behind a tree, her dreads making a constant thumping sound as they smacked into her back with the forceful turn. "Are you not entertained? Did you come out here and find what you were looking for?" she yelled, her magenta eyes growing brighter, holding a murderous glint in them.

Mal stood up and stared at Faith, she felt her own eyes shift and neon green eyes met hot pink ones in an intense standoff.

"Hey! What is going on here?" Faith and Mal's eyes quickly turned back to normal as the two powerful females and their male counterparts turned to look at Dr. Facilier marching over towards them. Faith pulled her jacket on and huffed. "Nothing. Nothing at all," she said, stalking off, she walked past the tree that Mal and Jay were hiding behind, a big tall oak, and slammed her fist into it, wood flew everywhere and there was a large chunk missing from the trunk as she walked away.

"You three, back inside," Dr. Facilier told them, pointing at Blade, Mal and Jay. He then tore off after Faith. Blade turned around and glared at the three. "Why'd you follow?"

"We were curious." Mal shrugged.

"No, you weren't. You wanted to see if you could get leverage on Faith, for whatever damned scheme that you're cooking up. I know your type, you think you're wicked, or evil. Just like your mother. But you're not. You're just a scared girl looking for something to hide behind so you seem cruel. You're petty at best." Blade shoved past Jay and ran toward the school building.

Professor Tremaine already told her she wasn't evil enough, or at least, her scheme wasn't. She didn't need some child of Hook telling her the same. She looked up at Jay, who was watching the boy walk away with a wary look, he looked at Mal and shrugged.

" _Dear child! Help me, I can't get into my home!"_

 _ **Bang! Bang!**_

" _Oh my! You look cold. Here, if you help me find my way, I'll get you some soup!"_

 _ **Smack! Thump! Bam!**_

" _For the love of! Just let me out of here! My time couldn't have come!"_

Faith hit the punching bag so hard that it flew across the room and left a crater in the wall. Okay, so punching bag is stretching the definition. And so is room.  
And wall.  
She sighed as she went over, picked up the sack filled with rocks and old cloth scraps, and hung it back on the hook that she stole from, well, Hook. Her hands were wrapped in leather, her top was somewhere on the floor, along with her jacket. Her bare feet were smoothly gliding across the floor as she shifted her stance. Sweat poured down her front and back, and dotted across her face.

 _ **Bang, Bang, Bam!**_

"Leave me alone. I can't help you," Faith gritted out, slamming her fist into the bag again.

" _If you can see us, then you can help us."_

 _ **Bam! Bam!**_

"Where's the logic in that?" Faith murmured and sent a shocking left hook to the bag, it once again flew off the hook and landed on the other side of the "room." Really, it was just a cave. She found it only a few hours ago, and had went and found supplies that she could use to practice, kind of like the setup she has in her basement at home. The only source of light came from the oil lantern that she had set in the corner, _far_ away from the bag's flying distance.

She honestly shouldn't be here. She should be going home, and try avoiding all the ghost that she can. But home isn't her safe haven anymore. And punching, it seems to be the only thing keeping her sane at the moment. Faith groaned in frustration when another ghost tried getting her to "help" and slammed her fist into the bag so hard that it busted open.

"Great, just great," Faith said. She looked outside it was noon, school probably just ended. She'd make it home before dark if she left now. Faith exhaled through her nose, it was not her intention to stay out after dark. Alone. The amount of ghost that would approach her at that time is remarkably high. Faith left all her things in the cave, except for her shoes, jacket, and shirt. She unwrapped her hands, which, weren't protected by the leather much, and made her way home.

Sadly, the next morning Faith was woken early. Apparently, her father went looking for her when she stormed off and now had a tremendous amount of paper work due to the fact that they both practically ditched school. She sat up slowly, her sore muscles popping as she stretched. Her legs hurt from jumping and running over rooftops, her short cut around the Isle.

Today, she was extremely lax and comfortable in clothing. She wore a purple sweater that slumped to expose her right shoulder, the sleeves were large, and bunched up at the ends. There were three black roses on the front, and her signature skull on the back. A pair of skinny jeans that were actually skinny on her were red with white paint splotches. She donned a pair of black combat boots, and a black beanie. And as always, she had her cane and messenger bag. After she was dressed, she headed downstairs to a very bored Dr. Facilier. "So why am I coming?"

"You honestly think I trust you to be alone in the house, or anywhere, anymore?"

Faith winced. Her disappearance also cost her whatever freedom she had. God, now every single moment is either going to be spent with her dad, or with her small group of allies.

"Besides, you've _also_ been skipping out on Dalma's lessons. And that cannot continue, you need to be very well practiced for when we get off this retched island."

Notice the all-knowing _when_ and not _if_.

The school was dead as a ghost town that Saturday afternoon; only a goblin crew had arrived to clean the halls and mow the grass around the tombstones. Faith and her father walked in and descended into the gloom of campus. The hallways were lined with overgrown ivy that seemed to be multiplying by the second, snaking around old portraits of evil villains nobody could name anymore. Faith could've sworn their eyes followed her as she trotted past.

She settled into the classroom that her father did his paper work in, and sat in the classroom all the way in the back. She took out her wooden block and whittle knife and began to carve into it once again. Two hours later and the body of the wooden doll she was carving was done. And Faith was adding detail and intricate swirls with little to no meaning to the craft. As she began to work on its head, she heard the patter of feet outside, she lifted her head in time to see Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay approaching her father, who was at his desk, staring into an empty crystal ball.

"Ahh, if it isn't my least-favorite student," he said when he saw Mal.

"Relax, Dr. F, I'm not here to fill your top hat with crickets again."

"What a relief," he said coldly. "How can I help you?"

"We need to get into the forbidden library," Mal said. "The Athenaeum of Secrets."

"Why would you want to go there?" Faith questioned. Mal whirled around to see Faith had somehow appeared right behind them. Her eyes widened.  
"Wait, weren't you-"

"In the back? Yes. Yes I was," Faith said, taking her place next to her dad. "Anyways, why do you want to go there? I mean, it's called the forbidden library for a reason- because _we,_ as students, are forbidden to enter." Faith said.

Mal hopped up on Dr. Facilier's desk, cool as Lucifer, and looked at the headmaster. "Yeah, about that," she said, plopping down a pack of tarot cards. "Entrance fee?"

Faith's father picked a few up and held them under the dim reading light beside him. "The Major Arcana," he said as Faith looked over his shoulder to study the cards as well.  
"Impressive," Faith told them, looking back at the group of teens. "But, what exactly are you guys looking for in the library?"

"A map of the island," Mal said, before looking back at Dr. Facilier, "And make it quick, will you? I haven't got all day."

Faith was way ahead of the group on the way to the library, and immediately began to pet the giant guard spider as soon as she saw it. "Hey there bud, miss me? I haven't seen you since I was eight," Faith said, before tickling its belly. She heard a cough behind her and sighed before motioning the spider over so they could go through the door. The door to the Library of Forbidden Secrets opened with a rusty squeak, and Dr. Facilier escorted the five of them through

Tall, teetering bookshelves housed tattered, waterlogged leather-bound books, covered with twenty years' worth of dust, as well as beakers and vials filled with strange-looking liquids and potions. As Dr. Facilier scurried down the dingy corridors before them, moving through the rows of bookshelves and muttering under his breath, they were only able to make out the faint outline of his glowing candle, casting shadows against the library walls.

"You know he's got bat poop for brains, right? This could all be for nothing," Jay whispered.

Faith overheard and shot him a dirty look.

"Just saying," said Jay.

"It's worth a try," Evie said from behind them, stopping briefly to untangle herself from a cobweb. "Otherwise, we'll just be wandering around in the dark, like we are now."

"Yeah, it couldn't hurt," agreed Carlos. He was holding his machine protectively under his jacket.

"Aha! Here we are," Dr. Facilier announced, stopping in front of a row of cases. He pulled out a yellowing rolled-up piece of parchment from one of the dusty shelves. He smoothed out the paper and placed it on a lopsided worktable while the five of them gathered around.

"Um, there's nothing there," Faith said, worried about her father's sanity. And for good reason, the map was blank.

"Well, it was written in invisible ink, of course," Dr. Facilier said as if everybody knew this. "How's a secret supposed to stay a secret otherwise?"

Without warning, and to the shock of everyone around, Mal grabbed him by the collar and pushed him up against one of the bookcases, which caused several of the vials to fall and shatter to the floor. "Why you little rat, have you forgotten who my mother is, and how she can have you and everyone on this filthy is-" Mal was cut off when someone grabbed her by her arm and threw her across the room. She landed into Jay, and the both of them skidded across the floor before stopping at the far wall.

Mal, who cut her head when she hit the wall, growled and stomped over to Faith, the girl was picking her father up and sent a warning look toward Mal. It said, _Come closer, and you'll regret it._ Mal ignored the threat and moved forward.

"Mal!" Evie said in a shocked tone. "Stop it!" She went to help Faith with Dr. Facilier. "Let me handle this."

Mal turned to her, "Let you what?"

"Handle this, Easier to catch flies with hone than vinegar," she said, she turned and looked up at the older man, "now, Dr. F, there has to be a way to make the ink visible, isn't there?"

Faith's father mopped his sweaty brow with a raggedy silk handkerchief. "Yes, there is."

"Good," E vie sighed in relief, "Could you tell us how?"

The headmaster pointed shakily to the vials that had shattered on the ground. "The antidote was kept there. But now, it's gone."

Both Evie and Faith glanced at Mal, who looked stricken. Mal put her head in her hands and groaned, not much caring about the blood that pooled in her hands at the moment.

"Um, Mal?" Carlos asked softly, tapping her shoulder.

"Go away Spotty," she snapped.

"Listen. I know how to make the elixir, to see the ink."

They all turned to him, including Dr. Facilier. "You can do magic?" Mal asked, shock and disbelief written on her face, "But how?"

"No, no, it's not magic, it's just a little chemistry – you know, Weird Science," Carlos said. "Come on, Evie, bring the map."

Faith led Dr. Facilier back to the office, both silent on the way there. "They're looking for something, something big," Dr. Facilier told her, "I want you to join their quest."

Faith looked up shocked, "Are you kidding me? Me, join them. What happened to not trusting me alone?"

"You won't be alone."

"And being with them is better?" Faith asked, stepping back to look at her father. "What happens if I have a break down? Or-"

"You can handle it, they'll need you, and who knows. You might find something you were looking for."

Faith sighed, not really understanding the knowing look in her father's eyes. But nodded in agreement, maybe if she proved she was helpful enough they'll let her in.

She entered the Chem lab as Carlos said in victory, "Voilà! Antidote to invisible ink." He poured the mixture over the map. And just like magic, the Isle of the Lost began to form before their eyes. Including the hidden and forbidden zones, even the cave that Faith had found yesterday. The Forbidden Fortress appeared, a menacing – looking castle of spiky walls and twisty towers, located on the edge of the island, right in the middle of Nowhere.

"Do you guys need help?" Faith asked, making her presence known. All four of them turned around, albeit Mal a bit more slowly due to her wound, to see Faith staring at them with a smug smile, her magenta eyes alight with knowing.

Mal scoffed and crossed her arms, still leaning against the desk cause of her dizziness, glaring at the girl. "And how could you help?"  
Faith walked over and placed her hand on Mal's cut, slowly, the haze seemed to fade away, and she could stand up straight without wobbling, or feeling the need to sit down. "Well, that's one reason," Faith said, stepping back to look at them.

Mal raised an eyebrow before sighing, "And I have a feeling that your strength is another?" Faith nodded, "Fine. Carlos! Do you have the compass?" Mal asked.

Carlos nodded. The box beeped, as if to agree.

According to the map they would have to walk way past the village right to the edge of the shore, and from there the path would take them to the fortress.

They set off, Carlos in front with Jay, Evie just behind, Faith and Mal holding up the rear. Mal watched them walk in front of her, frequently taking wary glances at Faith, who was walking with a worried look in her eyes. Mal knew that Jay would steal the Dragon's Eye for himself at the first opportunity, that Evie was trying to get on her good side, and curry favor, and that Carlos had only joined them to fulfill his curiosity.

The real question was what did Faith want? Mal didn't know much about her, but what she did know was surprising. She went from being that dashing girl on the roof who gave away her baddie bag, to a fragile looking girl who apparently can still use magic and punch a tree in half. For all Mal knew, she could just be looking for an adventure. After all, Mal saw Faith's magenta eyes light up with excitement as Carlos filled her in on all the details of the quest.

Somehow, they all had the same goal. To find the Dragon's Eye. Better yet, she wasn't going into Nowhere alone.

Mal had her gang of thieves.

Her very own minions.

And that was progress indeed.

Her evil scheme – the big nasty one – was working.

The path away from the village and toward the shore was smooth at first, but soon became rocky. Faith began to flag. Her feet hurt in her boots, but she soldiered on grimly, now she and Mal were leading the way and following the directions on the map. Next to her, she could here Mal's frustrated breaths and quick feet. Behind her, she could hear Evie's light steps, Jay's stomping ones, and Carlos' tentative ones.

"Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work we go," Carlos sang under his breath.

Evie shuddered, "Don't."

"What do you have against dwar – Oh, right," he said, "Sorry."

Faith on the other hand began to hum _I've Got Friends on the Other Side_.

"It's okay," Evie said, "So, that was your mom, huh?"

"Yup, the one and only Cruella de Vil," Carlos said, bypassing some poison ivy and pointing it out to the rest of the group to a void. 'One-ticket to crazy town, right?"

"She's not so bad," said Evie, who ducked below a low hanging branch of a creepy oak tree. "At least she doesn't pretend to be a Magic Mirror telling you you're far from the fairest of the land."

Carlos stopped in his tracks, and he and Jay looked at her, shocked. Faith took a step toward Evie, and even Mal turned around to stare at her.

"Really? But you're gorgeous," Jay questioned Evie, "I mean, you're not my type, but you've got to know you're good-looking."

"Do you really think so?" She asked.

"Nah, you're moms right – you're ugly," Jay teased.

"That sucks that she does that," Carlos told Evie, and Faith gave a reassuring squeeze to the shoulder before continuing on.

"Whatever," Evie said nonchalantly, "It's not like I care."

"You really mean that?" Carlos asked.

"I mean, it's not like your mom is any different, right?" Evie pointed out. They were the children of the most evil villains in the world. What did they expect? Love? Joy? Sympathy?

"I guess not."

"And your dad, Jay? Doesn't he only care about the shop?"

Jay brooded on that, "Yeah, of course. But what else is he supposed to care about?"

"Faith? What about your dad?"

"I worry him too much for him to much. Apparently. He rarely lets me leave the house unless it's to get me stronger."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Evie asked.

"Nothing."

Mal listened to their conversation, finding it oddly soothing to have other people around, for once. She'd never really liked companionship before. But then again, Maleficent had always insisted that they lived apart from the pack – superior, alone, and bent on revenge.

Lonely, Mal thought. She was lonely, and so were they.

Evie, with her beauty – obsessed mother; Carlos, with his screeching harpy of a parent; Jay, the happy-go-lucky thief with a quick wit and dashing smile, who could steal anything in the world except his father's hear; and Faith, who was shut up at home this whole time, who knows how she's adjusting to being around people.

They trudged on in silence for a while, when a sharp whistle cut through the air. It was from Jay, who had been scouting ahead. Evie took a step and crunched twigs loudly under her foot, while Carlos looked up fearfully, and Faith continued to stare through the fog, her eyes slightly unfocused.

Mal whistled back.

Jay jogged too where the three of them were huddled together.  
"What is it?" Mal hissed.

"I saw something – in the shadow. Hide!" Jay whispered fiercely, disappearing behind a rock.

Carlos yelped and tried to climb a tree, the bark scratching his knees. Evie screamed softly and dove behind some blackberry bushes. Faith crossed her arms and looked into the fog with a knowing smirk.

But Mal froze in place. She couldn't move, for some reason. At first it was because she felt annoyed to think that any daughter of Maleficent would have to hide from anything. But as the shadow loomed closer and grew larger, she wondered if she had made the wrong decision.

Faith chuckled in a low tone and walked into the fog, ignoring Evie and Carlos' hisses for her to come back. In seconds she was engulfed in the fog and no one could see her, it was like she disappeared. The shadow had a pair of large horns and a spiky tail. Was it a dragon? But her mother was the only dragon in these parts, and had lost the ability to transform into one, once the magic-shielding dome had been put in place. Faith's shadow was nowhere to be seen.

Soon they hear a moan, a terrible wailing unlike anything they had ever heard.

It was a hellhound, for sure. A creature of myth and legend, a creature of tooth and fang, blood and fur.

Then, the creature emitted what could only be called an adorable purr.

"Beelzebub!" Carlos cried from the tree.

Faith emerged from the shadows, a little black cat with a wicked grin was in her arms. It was just a kitty. The shadow had distorted its ears to look like horns and its tail to appear as if it had spikes.

"You know this foul beast?" Mal asked contemptuously to hide her embarrassment at having been scared, she felt her heart rate slow back down as Faith handed the cat to Carlos.

"It's just my cat," Carlos said. "I got her when I was little, she's one of Lucifer's litter. She's my evil sidekick."

"Oh, cool. I got one too. You know, at my birthday party," Evie said, "Mine is Othello, a baby parrot – well, not such a baby anymore. And he's got quite the mouth on him, no sure where Othello learned all of them."

"Cool – you got one of Iago's babies? I got two electric eels, Lagan and Derelict. There Flotsam and Jetsam's, and huge now. Monsters," Jay told them. "They hardly fit in their aquarium anymore."

Carlos let the cat rub his cheek. "Go on Bee. Go back home, stop following us. I'll be back soon – don't worry."

"What's your evil sidekick?" Evie turned toward Faith and Mal.

Faith simply shook her head. Besides the occasional stray that ended up by her house, Faith never interacted with animals. But she wished she had a dog.

Mal, on the other hand, colored. She remembered exactly where they had each received their sidekicks, at the fabulous party long ago.  
The one she had not been invited to.  
"I don't have one," she said shortly.

"Oh!" said Evie, and turned away, looking embarrassed.

 _Don't worry,_ thought Mal. _You'll pay soon enough._


	5. A Bridge, Yay

Finally they stood face-to-face with the gray fog that circled the island and marked the edge of Nowhere. The mist was so thick, it was impossible to see what lay beyond it. It would have entailed a walk of faith to see what was on the other side. And all their lives, the four had been told to keep away from the fog, to stay back from the edge of the gray.

"Who goes first?" asked Jay.

"Not me," said Evie.

Faith shook her head, her eyes fixed on something in the distance.

"Nor me," said Carlos.

"Duh," sniffed Mal. "As if either of you would."

"Mal?" asked Jay. "After you?"

Mal bit her lip. It was, after all, her quest. "Yeah. I'll go, cowards." She squared her shoulders and tensed. "I'll come with," Faith said. Stepping into the fog with Mal. And though the little fairy won't admit it, she was glad for her volunteering. The fog was like walking through a cold rain, and both girls shivered. Mal had to remind herself that there was no magic on the island, and that nothing could hurt her. But even so, the gray darkness was impenetrable, and for a moment she felt like screaming.

She looked over toward Faith, who was shivering from the cold rather than fear. Her bottom lip was white and trembling. And she wrapped her flannel tighter around herself.

They reached the other side. Still whole. Not disintegrated. Not nothing. Not gone.  
Male exhaled. "Its fine!" she called back toward the others. "Get over here!"

Faith could here Jay mumble, "If she says so," and then the three of the walked through the fog to meet up with the two girls.

Finally, the five of them were on the other side of the fog, standing at the edge of Nowhere.

"Whoa, said Carlos.

They all looked down. They were standing literally at the water's edge. One more step and they would have fallen off the rocky piece of land that was the Isle of the Lost and into the deep sea below.

"Holy Lucifer, what the heck are we supposed to do now?" Mal asked.

"I don't know, but this thing won't shut up," Carlos complained. It was true, the compass in his box was beeping wildly now, and the closer Carlos stepped toward the strip of rocky foggy beach, the faster it beeped. "It's over there, it has to be," he said, pointing to the sea.

"Ah, you see, becoming alligator dinner was not on my bucket list," Faith said, stepping away from the water's edge.

"And I forgot my swimsuit, plus, I also don't really enjoy being eaten by reptiles, so it's all on you guys," Jay said, backing up with Faith.

"It can't be in the water," Mal growled, yanking out the map from her pocket. She gasped.  
"Guys, come here!" They all gathered around Mal. "Look, there's more!" More ink had appeared, and this time, they saw that the fortress wasn't technically on the Isle of the Lost at all, but was located on its own island, or rather its own piece of floating rock. Which just so happened to be named the Isle of the Doomed.

"Lovely," Faith muttered.

"Well, that's cheery," Carlos said.

"And just how are we supposed to get over there?" Evie asked.

Mal studied the map and pointed to a spot labeled GOBLIN WHARF.

"We'll hitch a ride from one of our friendly neighborhood goblins to row us over, of course," Mal said, pushing past them and starting up the muddy beach toward the docks where the goblins unloaded the Auradon barges.

"There's no such thing as a friendly goblin," Carlos sighed, but like the rest of them, he followed behind Mal.

They arrived quickly at the busy port. Mostly because the alligators had taken to snapping at them from the shallow water by the beach, and they'd sprinted, screaming, toward the dock.

The wharf was bustling with activity. Goblins pushed their way past the foursome, emptying cargo from the big Auradon ships that were allowed in and out of the magic dome. They placed the rotting and rotten goods onto the splintering wooden boardwalk and jumped on and off each other's makeshift rafts and boats. They hooted and hollered in their Goblin tongue, tossing bags of scraps and leftovers—clothing, food, cosmetics, electronics, everything the people on Auradon didn't want anymore or had no use for, onto teetering rickshaws to sell at the market.

"We'll need to pay for passage," Mal said.  
And Faith nodded, "Yeah, they're not going to take us over there for free."

The five of them emptied their pockets to pool enough of a sum of trinkets and food to pay their way across to the Isle of the Doomed. It took some haggling – Jay did most of the talking as he spoke a bit of Goblin from having worked at the shop – but they finally secured a spot on a scrap boat. That is, a boat that collected anything and everything that fell off the Auradon Dumpsters. It was a scavenger of scavengers, the lowest of bottom feeders.

And it was most definitely not constructed for five teenage villains. The floating wooden box creaked and groaned as Mal and the others boarded.

"If I die," Jay said darkly, "you still can't have any of my stuff."

"We'll be fine," Faith said. But her grip on the edge of the boat and her cane said otherwise, she was more or less likely saying this for her own benefit.

The goblin snickered and started the ancient, rusty motor, and off they went into the thick fog.

It was odd to see the Isle of the Lost from the water. It almost looked…pretty, Mal thought. The forest was lush and green around the edges of the island, and the rocky beach jutted out dramatically into a rolling blanket of navy-blue water. In the distance, she could see Bargain Castle. From far away, it seemed to be gleaming in the fading sunlight.

"Funny how different things look from far away, huh?" Evie said, following Mal's gaze back toward Isle of the Lost.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Mal said, turning her back on Evie. That same ache was settling in her gut again, and she didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit.

Mal could only be sure they'd arrived at the Isle of the Doomed because the engine had stopped. They still couldn't see five feet in front of them. Mal scrambled blindly out of the boat and onto the rocky beach, followed quickly by the rest of the team. The goblin quickly sped off.

The fog lifted slightly as they made their way through the brush. Soon they were standing in front of a gate covered with a painful-looking bristly forest of thorns. And beyond the gate, high on a craggy mountaintop, stood a large black castle, a ruined, forbidding wreck silhouetted against the night sky.

The thorns around the gate grew thick and twisted, so sharp, they would stab or scrape anyone who dared come near. Worse, the thorns were covered with deadly poisonous spiders; and the whole place had a toxic and sinister air.

They stood, paralyzed, unable and unwilling to figure out what to do next, while the black box in Carlos's hands kept beeping incessantly. If it was indeed communicating with the Dragon's Eye, it was clear that the scepter was somewhere behind the thorny gates.

Mal scrunched up her face, frustrated.

It was Jay who broke the silence.

He handed Mal and Evie each a silver dagger, and Carlos some bug spray. He pulled out two red handled machetes.

Faith shook her head and twisted her cane, the handle came off with a thick silver blade attached to it. She hooked the sheath to one of her belt loops.

"You have a convertible sword," Evie said.  
At the same time Carlos stared at Jay and asked, "You carry an ax in your pocket?"

" _ **Who doesn't?**_ " Faith and Jay said at the same time. Color rushed to the tips of Faith's ears while Jay cracked a smile. "When you steal things from all over the place, I find that you always arrive prepared."

Mal had to admit that Jay's loot came in handy right then.

Jay hacked a path with his machete, Faith followed right after him, trimming away at the thorns and branches above them. Mal and the others followed close behind. Mal slashed at a branch of thorns with her silver dagger, and the branch withered and shrank from her knife. Evie did the same on the other side, and Carlos sprayed a hairy tarantula with his spray, so that it fell off a branch, dead.

As Faith slashed she clenched her teeth in frustration.

" _Who are you?"_

" _How can you see us?"_

" _You're so bright! Are you an angle?"_

" _Are you going to take us from this place?"_

"Are you going to shut up?" Faith growled under her breath. Ignoring the concerned glance that Jay shot her over his shoulder. Luckily, the, _are you insane_ , look was sent to Carlos when he randomly laughed out loud.

"I'm not crazy," Carlos reassured them. Finally, the five made it back on land, and all the way through the thorn forest. Hey were no worse for wear, save a few scratches and itchy elbows. They were more than glad to find a real path leading up to the dark castle on the hill above them.

"Ah, plain old dirt and rock had never looked so good." Faith sighed, happy to find the area spirit free.

And all was well for the trip.

Until it began to rain, and the dirt became mud, and the rock became slippery.

But with each step Carlos invention began beeping brightly and quickly with each step they took toward the fortress. "The Dragon's Eye is definitely up there," Carlos said excitedly, "If this thing is right, I'm picking up on some kind of massive surge in electrical energy. If there is a hole in the dome, its leaking magic here somehow, different from the Isle of the Lost."

"Maybe the hole is right above this place," Evie said.

"Yeah, I can feel it too." Mal nodded, still moving forward along the path. "Do you guys?" She stopped and looked at them, shielding her eyes from the rain with one hand.

Carlos looked at her in surprise. "Feel what? This?" He held up his box, and it beeped in her face. Mal jumped back, startled, and Jay laughed.

"Whoops," Carlos said. "See what I mean? The energy is surging."

Mal looked embarrassed. "I don't know for sure. Maybe I'm imagining it, but it almost feels like there's some kind of magnet pulling me up the path."

"That is so creepy," Evie said, stopping to wipe sweat off her forehead with the edge of her cape. "Like, it's your destiny, literally, calling."

"Well," said Faith, shocking the others because she seemed more talkative than before, "no, not really. If it were literally calling, it would be, you know, calling her."

Jay laughed.

Evie glared at Faith. "Okay, fine. Literally pulling like a magnet, only not really, because it's, you know, destiny. Are you happy now?"

"Literally?" Carlos raised an eyebrow.

Jay laughed again, okay so maybe hanging around these guys aren't as bad as previously thought.

"Don't you guys feel it?" Mal sounded nervous. Nobody said anything, and she sighed, turning back to the muddy path.

They'd only made it up past the next curving switchback in the path when Mal stumbled and fell, sending a slide of rock down the trail behind her.

"Who-ahh," Mal yelped, her arms flailing. The dark stones were so slick with rain that she couldn't right herself, only slipping on the rocks again.

Evie caught Mal before she tumbled headfirst down the stony path, then grabbed Jay as she stumbled forward. Jay, being caught totally of guard, grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be Carlos.

Before all four teens could stumble down the path Faith grabbed Carlos by the back of his jacket, easily pulling them up.

"I've got you," Evie said, trying to pull Mal right side up.

"Yeah, and I got you," Jay said, putting them both on balance.

"Which is great for everyone but me," Carlos said, pushing Jay up.

"You're all off balanced." Faith said as she put Carlos back on his feet.

"I am definitely in the wrong shoes for this," Evie said, wincing at the sight of her own feet.

"We need flippers, not shoes. The rain has turned this whole trail into a mud river. Maybe we should all hold hands," Jay suggested. "We'll work better if we're all together."

"Did you really just say that?" Mal shook her head, sounding disgusted. "Why don't we just sing songs to cheer each other up and then weave flowers out of the mud and move to Auradon, while we're at it?"

"Yeah, you guys can work that out, I'm heading up." Faith said, using her cane agility and surprising balance to make it up the mountain effortlessly.

"Come on, Mal. I mean, unless you're Faith and can climb up the mountain no problem…" Carlos trailed off trying not to smile. He knew that Mal, of all of them, had the hardest time with anything more beneficent than Maleficent.

"Do you have a better idea?" Jay looked embarrassed.

"If you wanted to hold my hand, you know, you could have just asked," teased Evie, as she offered it to Jay, waggling her fingers.

"Well, now," Jay winked. "You don't say."

Evie laughed. "Don't worry, Jay, you're cute—but thieves aren't my style."

"I wasn't worried," said Jay smoothly, grasping her hand in his firm grip. "I just don't feel like taking a mud bath today."

"From a physics perspective, it does make sense. If you want to talk about Newton's second and third laws," Carlos added, trying to sound reassuring. "You know, momentum and force, and all that."

"What he said." Jay nodded, holding out his hand to Mal.

"Come on you slow pokes!" Faith yelled, her form looking very, very tinny from where they stood.

"Come on, Mal. Just take it. Even Newton agrees," Jay said, wiggling his fingers at Mal, while still grasping Evie's hand tightly in his other hand.

Mal gave up with a sigh, grabbing it after only a slight hesitation. Mal then held her hand out to Carlos, who grabbed it as if it were a lifesaver, seeing as he knew his physics better than any of them.

Somewhat awkwardly, and little by little, the four of them pulled and pushed and helped each other slosh their way up the muddy path, sweaty palms and muddy ankles and cold feet and all. When they finally reached the top, Faith didn't seem _too_ annoyed with them.

Before long the pathway curved once again, and now the thick rain cloud surrounding it seemed to part on either side of the four adventurers, revealing a sudden and dramatic vista—what appeared to be a long and slender stone bridge, half-shrouded in mist, that jutted out above a chasm in the rock directly in front of them.

"It's beautiful," Evie said, shivering. "In a really terrifying way."

"It's just a bridge," Carlos said, holding up his box. "But we definitely have to cross it. Look—" The light was flashing so brightly and so quickly now that he covered the sensor with one hand.

"Duh," Jay said.

"It's not just a bridge," Mal said, in a low voice, staring at the gray shape in front of her. "It's her bridge. Maleficent's bridge. And it's pulling me. I have to cross it. It wants me to get to the other side."

"It's not the bridge I'm worried about," Faith said, looking into the distance. "Look!"

Beyond the bridge and mist, a black castle rose from a pillar of stone. The bridge was the only way to reach the castle, as sheer cliffs surrounded the black fortress on all other sides.

But the castle itself was so forbidding, it didn't exactly look like a place that wanted to be reached.

"That's it," Mal breathed. "That has to be the Forbidden Fortress." The darkest place on their dark isle—Maleficent's old lair, and ancestral home.

"Sweet," Jay said. "That's one sick shack."

Evie studied it from behind him, still shivering. "And I thought our castle was drafty."

"I can't believe that we actually found it." Carlos stared from his box to the castle. "And I can't believe it was so close to the island all along."

Mal's eyes were dark, and her expression was impossible to read. _She looked almost stunned_ , Faith thought. "I guess that explains the rain. The Forbidden Fortress hides itself in a shroud of fog and mist. It's like a moat, I guess."

Faith tuned out the others talk about the fortress, or whatever they were discussing, and instead focused on the pure chills that she got just by looking over the bridge. She could hear the wails and screams of tortured souls down below, the bright light of souls coming from the trench below was blinding. Faith had to resist to shut her eyes and cover hear ears. And the smell, it was so heavy, and sickly sweet, Faith had to grab onto something, Mal's arm to be precise, to avoid from falling over. Ignoring the young fairy's curious glance she focused on the conversation instead.

"Do you feel that?" Carlos held his vibrating hand up into the air. Now that Faith wasn't focusing on the blood curdling screams, she could feel it, the magnetic pull that Mal had tried to describe. It was thrumming in the air, even the very stones beneath her feet were trembling.

"Yeah," Faith said, leaning on Mal heavily, who began to support her wait hesitantly, Faith was surprised she didn't throw her off.

"I can too," Evie said, picking up a rock from the mud. It rattled in her fingers as she held it. "Destiny," she announced dramatically.

Faith scoffed, feeling a little better, she slowly began to ease off of Mal.

Jay pointed at the lightning that crackled in the air above the black turrets. 'Me too. I guess it's time."

Mal didn't say a word. She only stared, as she now kept a grip on Faith.

"Hold on now. We're not in any rush," Carlos said. "We need to do this right, or-" He didn't finish the sentence. He just shrugged.

"Look," Jay called over, yanking back an armful of overgrown vines that covered the stony steps leading up to the main ramp of the bridge. He tossed them to the side.

"What are those horrible, ugly creatures?" Evie made a face. "No thanks. I'll stay on this side of those things."

Mal felt Faith shudder, and she looked over to see the voodoo man's daughter paled a few inches. Little did she know she was getting harsh screams thrown at her, telling her to go back. She even felt a spirit, though strangely, she didn't see it, attempting to pull her back, giving her arm major freezer burn.

And Faith could see why. Because now that the vines were gone, they could see that the entire bridge appeared to be guarded by ancient stony gargoyles. The winged gryphons glared down at them from where they perched, flanking the bridge on either side. Faith shivered, they didn't…. Feel, right.

"Lovely," Jay said.

They stared. It wasn't only Mal who could see her mother's hand in every stone around them. The carved creatures sneered in the exact same way Maleficent did, their teeth pointed, their mouths cruel.

Mal looked at them, frozen.

Carlos and Faith realized it was because she was paralyzed by fear. "Mal?" they chorused, while Faith took her arm out of Mal's grip and took her hand in comforting way instead.

She didn't answer, didn't even pull away.

 _She can't do this alone,_ Carlos thought. _None of us can_.

Carlos stepped up on to the first stone paver that led to the sloping bridge. Just as he did, the stone gargoyles began to flap their wings in front of them.

Faith jumped back, pulling Mal behind her.

"Whoa!" Jay said.

"No," Evie denied, shaking her head. "Just, no."

"How is this possible?" asked Jay. "With the obvious exception for Faith, there's no magic on the island."

"The hole in the dome," Faith said. "It must have sparked the castle to life or something."

"Like a chemical reaction!" Carlos said.

And it made sense – not only had Diablo been unfrozen, but the whole fortress was alive as well.

Carlos moved his way up the next step, and then the next, until he was standing level with the main ramp of the bridge itself. Faith, Mal, both girls still gripping each other's hand, Evie and Jay now followed behind him.

The creatures growled as they came to life around the, the bridge rumbling beneath their feet. Their eyes glowed green, the fog was bright and illuminating as it curled around them. The gargoyles uncurled their hunched backs, their height doubling and leaving an intimidating impression.

"This must be residue, left over from the magical years," Faith said. Carlos nodded, in agreement, looking at the ugly creatures with their gnarled teeth and forked tongues.  
"Yeah. Whatever did this was probably part of the same power that sparked Diablo to life."

"The same power?" Mal asked, looking up at the creatures spellbound. "You mean, my mother's?"

"Or the same electromagnetic wave," Carlos shrugged, "I'm not sure how to tell the difference anymore."

Jay swallowed as a gargoyle leaned down, looking ready to pounce. "Right now, I'm pretty sure the difference doesn't matter," he said wearily.

" **WHO GOES THERE?** " boomed one gargoyle.

" **YOU SHALL NOT PASS!** " said the other, and Faith nearly chocked, wow, a gargoyle with humor.

"Yeah? Says who?" Carlos took a step back, the others following him, with Evie and Mal behind him, and Jay and Faith on either side.

"I hope this doesn't end in a fist fight, I'm not really feeling up for it," Faith hissed towards the others, the wails and warnings were getting louder.

"We're not going to fight," Mal murmured. She glared up at the gargoyles, "You ugly things need to move!" said Mal, shouting from behind him. "Or I'm going to make you!"

"Mal!" Faith hissed, her attention trained on the gargoyles that bristled at the threat.

"Um, any ideas?" Carlos looked over his shoulder nervously. "Everyone except for Faith are weaponless and powerless, and I don't think we can rely on her to fight everything."

"There has to be a way," Mal said. "We have to pass!" She shouted again. "Let us through!"

"Yeah, Mal, I'm not so sure that's working." Evie sighed.

The gargoyles glared at the children with their glowing eyes. " _ **You cannot pass,**_ " the growled in unison. As the creatures spoke, the thick grey clouds surrounding the long stone ram cleared away, revealing a gap in the bridge, too large for anyone to even possibly _think_ about jumping over.

"Great," Jay said, "So it's over. Fine. Whatever. Cam we go n- _Mmph!_ " Jay groaned, holding his stomach, Faith's scrawny elbow entering his gut? Painful.

The others just stared.

There wasn't any possible way to reach the castle. They had come all this way only to fail.

Carlos stepped back and noticed something carved in the stones at the foot of the bridge. He sat down to read it.

"What is it?" Mal asked, kneeling next to him. Faith looked over the both of their shoulders before smirking.

"Our way to cross."


	6. YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Faith squat down next to Carlos and brushed away to reveal a single sentence carved in the stones: _Ye who trespass the bridge must earn the right of way._

"Great, so what are they directions or something?" Mal asked, looking at the others. "What does that mean? How do we earn the right of way?"

Evie shook her head, glancing up at the gargoyles and the broken bridge. "I don't know. It's a riddle, sort of. We don't seem to have earned anything."

"And technically, we are trespassers," Faith supplied. Swinging her cane around in nervousness.

Evie frowned, "I think we should go. Maybe the bridge was destroyed – maybe it's been like this for years. Maybe no one gets in and out now."

Faith shuddered and glanced over the edge of the chasm, listening to the cries and agonizing moans of the dead. "Well, you got that last one right," she mumbled.

"No," Mal said, "Those words have to mean smoothing. But is it a riddle, or a warning?" She looked at the gap in the bridge and pushed her way past the others. Determined to figure out a way, she stomped confidently toward the edge.

"What are you doing?" Carlos yelled.

Faith ran after her, "Mal, wait! You're not thinking straight!"

But Mal didn't stop. In fact, if Faith wasn't so focused on catching up to her, she would've wondered how Mal is moving so fast.

Carlos took a step back, Jay and Evie flanking him. "Go after them," Carlos said. "Pull Mal from the break in the stone before she falls. This is crazy!"

Jay nodded and sprinted after the two.

Faith caught up and with Mal and roughly pulled her away from the edge. For a second, looking at the enraged expression Faith wore, Mal was sure that she found someone even more terrifying than her mother. 

"Are you crazy?" Faith yelled, glaring down at the girl. Mal opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Jay's heavy footsteps and Carlos' call. "They're like big doorbells, Mal, when we try to cross, they turn on. When we go to leave, they turn off."

Mal ran back with Faith and Jay behind her. "So maybe it's just a test. Look," she said, approaching the gargoyles. Mal came up to them, watching as their eyes glowed once more. "Ask me your questions!" she called up to the guardians of the bridge. "Let us earn the right of way!"

The gargoyles continued to glare down at her.

"Maybe you're not turning it on right," Evie said.

"Maybe this is just a waste of time." Jay sighed.

"NO! It's not," Mal said, giving them a beseeching look. "This is my mother's castle," Mal gritted out, walking closer to Jay, "We've found it, and there has to be a way in. Look at the inscription on the stone—it has to be some kind of test!"

Faith put a hand on Mal's shoulder, gently pulling her back. "Carlos said they're like a doorbell, right? But, what if they're not? It could be like an alarm system in a house."

"All we would have to know to disable them is the code," Jay said in agreement, seeing where she was going with this, "I mean, that's what I would do, if I was trying to break in."

"So what's the code?" Mal demanded, turning back to the gargoyles with annoyance and anger in her eyes, "Tell me you idiots!"

Mal drew herself up like her mother would, to her full height and spoke in the way her mother does, in the way Cruella does.

She did _not_ ask the gargoyles, she commanded them.

"This is _my_ mother's castle, and _you_ are her servants. You will do as I bid. ASK YOUR RIDDLE AND LET US PASS!" she ordered, feeling truly at home, for once.

A moment passed by.

The mists swirled, in the background ravens could be heard, cawing in fear, green light thrummed through distant windows of the castle.

" _Carlosssssss,"_ hissed the gargoyles, in disturbingly creepy unison. Faith shivered, they felt positively wrong. " _Approaaach usssss."_

Hearing his name, Carlos took a step forward with a fearful awestruck look on his face. "Why me?" he questioned the gargoyles.

"Maybe because you touched the step first? So the alarm is set on Carlos mode?" Jay scratched his head. "Better you than me man."

"So this test is our pass code," Mal mused, and Faith nodded in response before turning to Carlos.

"You got this Carlos." She smiled reassuringly. 

Then the gargoyles interrupted the heartwarming encouragement with a hiss. " _Carlossssss. First quessstion…"_

Carlos took a shaky breath and took a slight step forward. Mal wasn't _too_ worried about her ally, he's a smart kid, he could get through this… Right?

" _Ink spot in the snow_

 _Or red, rough, and soft_

 _Black and wet, warm and fast_

 _Loved and lost—What am I?"_

No sooner had the gargoyles stopped their rhyme had the rumbling of the bridge began to shake under their feet. "Carlos!" Evie cried, nearly falling over, luckily, Faith caught her by the shoulder before the Evil Queen in training could face plant.

"What?" Carlos ran his hand through his hair anxiously. Faith chewed her lip, she couldn't even begin to think of a hint to the answer.  
Apparently, neither did Carlos, he kept bouncing back and forth on his feet, trying to think of the answer.

"Answer the question!" Mal snapped, getting impatient as the light was once more fading from the gargoyle's eyes.

"It's—" Carlos began, seemingly to stall, before he stopped, the answer hitting him. "The puppies… My mother's puppies, the Dalmatians. All one hundred and one of them. All loved and all lost, by her." He looked up at the stone faces, "Though, I think the love part is debatable."

Silence.

"Do I need to say the names? Because I swear I can tell them to you, every last one of them." He took a breath, preparing for the long list. "Pongo. Perdita. Patch. Lucky. Roly. Poly. Freckles. Pepper…." When he had finished speaking mist once more congealed around the bridge. Carlos let out a sigh.

It hadn't worked.

"Wait!" Mal said, pointing to the spot where the mist had congealed. "It's doing something." The grey mist dissapeard, revealing a new section of the bridge, a piece that had not been in existence moments ago.

The gargoyles cleared a path, and the five of them ran out onto it, hurrying into the newly formed edge for the next question.

"NEXT RIDDLE!" Mal demanded, just as a ferocious wind blew at them. Faith stumbled as it hit her, a chorus of screams pounding through her ears. She had to bite back the scream that wanted to tear through her throat, shivering from the pure sadness and terror that washed over her. Then the tears threatened to spill when she felt the sorrow, and the pain that they endured. Thankfully, Faith was standing behind everyone, so her little breakdown was not seen.

When the screaming calmed down, Faith heard Carlos question the gargoyles. "Her kiss is death? It hast to be about my mother. Is that the answer? Cruella De Vil?"

The bridge began to shake even harder.

Wrong answer.

"But it is about your mother!" Evie cried out, "A rose in a blizzard, it blooms like a cut…her kiss…it's about what color lipstick she wears! Cruella's signature red!"

Carlos was dumbfounded. "It is?"

"A red smear—see? It means it's something she puts on. Oh, I know what it is!" Evie said. "The answer is _Cherries in the Snow_! That has to be it; it's been everywhere this season. I mean—judging from what's been thrown away on the Dumpster barges."

Mal rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you know that."

The wind whipped up again, Faith shivered, and gripped Jay's hand, and then all five teens' hands were locked together. Holding on to one another for support as the ground threatened to throw them. They pressed their shoulders together, bracing themselves against the gale.

Evie cursed. "It's not _Cherries in the Snow_? I could swear that was it. Red with a pinkish undertone. No, wait—wait—it didn't have a pink undertone, it was darker. Redder. A 'true red'—what did the magazines call it? Frost and flame? No— _Fire and Ice_! That's it! Cruella's pout is made of _Fire and Ice_!"

The gargoyles paused, their eyes glowing. They stood in place as the mist once more covered the bridge, the thinned out to reveal another new section.

Carlos relaxed. Jay whooped. Faith sagged into Jay, but gave Evie a small smile. Mal even clapped Evie on the back as they advanced across the bridge.

One more answered question, and the way would be clear it seems.

"Ask you last riddle!" Mal bellowed at the gargoyles.

Faith swallowed nervously, the stone creatures looked a bit crafty.

" _Carlossss last quessstion."_ They hissed.

He nodded.

Faith looked at him encouragingly. Clamping a comforting hand on his shoulder. He was shocked when he felt a sudden wave of warmth and calmness take over him. He looked over at Faith wide eyed, but turned back when the gargoyles spoke out their last riddle.

" _Dark is her heart_

 _Black like the sky above_

 _Tell us, young travelers—_

 _What is her one true love?"_

The creatures hissed in unison. And as soon as they finished speaking, they walked toward the five, teeth shinning, claws raised threateningly, wings flapping cold air down on them.  
Faith cursed as she realized that the gargoyles were too close, she pulled out her sword and stood on guard. The gargoyles would try to tear them to shreds if Carlos answered incorrectly, and Faith wasn't sure she would be fast enough to do anything, or make a difference.

Carlos had to get it right, not just to cross the bridge, but to keep them all alive. "'Dark is her heart'—they must mean Maleficent, right?" He turned to Mal. "But it could mean any of our mothers."

"My mother has no true love. My mother loves nothing and nobody! Not even me!" Mal said, with a slight wince of pain.

"Don't look at me. I don't even have a mother," Jay said.

"I'm out as well. When my mother was alive, she was anything _but_ dark," Faith said with a small sigh.

"Beauty!" Evie called out. "That's mine. I know…it's a little cliché."

But the gargoyles were not interested in anything anyone had to say. Impatiently, they swooped in closer, their tails swishing as the mist parted. " _WHAT IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE?"_ they demanded, looking from Evie, to Faith, to Carlos, to Mal, to Jay.

"My father?" Mal ventured.

Faith twirled her sword and faced the gargoyles with a menacing glare. Her eyes flashing hot pink as she prepared to fight, and quite possibly lose. She sized up the enemies, shocked to see how large they were, they were tall. Eight or nine feet tops. The gargoyles were enormous, and their weight made the bridge groan beneath their every step.

" _WHAT IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE?"_ the gargoyles bellowed, extending their massive wings. When they flapped, the mist swirled around the five of them.

"The Dragon's Eye?" Mall guessed. "That's all my mom cares about."

"Being the Fairest One of All!" Evie shouted. "Her, or me. In that order!"

"Ah what the hell," Faith sighed. "The SKY! My mother loves the sky!"

Jay just shrugged. "I can't help. I'm pretty sure the answer isn't Jafar, Prince of Pajamas."

Despite the situation, Faith giggled at that.

Then the bridge began to shake. Evie lost her balance and slipped, almost falling over the side, but Carlos caught her in time. Jay held on to a crumbling post and held his hand so that Carlos could hold on to him, forming a link to Evie. Faith had her sword dug into the coble of the bridge, keeping herself as steady as possible.

"Hurry! _Somebody'd_ better come up with _something_ ," Jay grunted. "I can't hold on much longer."

Evie screamed as she dangled off the bridge, Carlos clinging to one of her blue gloves, which she was slipping out of, one finger at a time.

"Shit!" Faith yelled, yanking her sword out of the ground and baseball sliding over to where they were, seeing as the bridge began to tilt that way. Faith stabbed her sword in the cobble once more and wrapped her arm around Evie's other wrist, she cried out as the skin tore open around her wound. Blood dripping down her arm and onto Evie, who was horrified by the red substance.

"THINK MAL! What does Maleficent love?" Carlos yelled. "She has to love SOMETHING!"

" _WHAT IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE? ANSWER THE RIDDLE OR FALL INTO DARKNESS!_ " Faith winced as the gargoyles booming voice thundered at her.

"Diablo?" Mal screamed. "Is it Diablo?"

In answer, the bridge buckled under her feet, and Mal slid down, only by luck managing to hold on to Jay, who was anchoring everyone except Faith. The entire castle was shaking. Stones flew down from its ramparts, and the towers threatened to crumble on top of them.

The bridge began to sway dangerously.

"Wait!" screamed Jay. "You guys! They're not talking about Maleficent! They're still talking about Cruella!"

"Carlos, quickly! What is her one true love?" Faith gritted out, pulling Evie halfway up towards the bridge, before nearly losing her grip from the slick of the blood on Evie's arm."

A second was wasted before Jay asked again, "CARLOS! WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER'S ONE TRUE LOVE?"

"HER FURS! FUR IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE!" he yelled. "All my mother cares about is her stupid fur coat closet and everything in it. But you guys already know that."

In the blink of an eye, the four of them were standing on the other side of the gargoyle bridge, and everything was set to rights once more. There was no more swaying, or rumbling, Evie was hauled safely on the bridge, and the gargoyles had all turned back to stone.

They were safe, for now.

"Nice work," said Mal, breathing heavily. "Okay, now—where to?"

"Now hold on a minute!" Evie said, bending down toward Faith, who was laying on the ground clutching her arm, her sword laid unsheathed by her side. "Are you okay?"

Faith nodded, "Yeah, yeah. Just…give me a moment and I'll be up and-" she cut herself off with a cry of pain when Carlos pulled back her sleeve to reveal the torn skin.

"Stitches, she's going to need them." Carlos said, examining the wound.

"I'm fine." Faith claimed, sitting up a little. She took the edge of her flannel and tore off the fabric, taking of a third of the length. She made to wrap the wound herself, but Carlos took the fabric and tied it around her arm as tightly as possible.

"Why don't you just heal yourself?" Mal asked, looking at the girl as she shakily stood up and sheathed her sword, then unclipped her cane and leaned on it with her good hand.

"I could, if the wound wasn't this bad, or it wasn't me. I can't heal myself, and… If the wound is too drastic, I can't heal that either. At least, not on the Isle."

Mal nodded. "Now that, that's settled, where to?"

Carlos looked at the beeping box in his hands, trying not to cringe at the sight of dried blood on them. "This way."


	7. Forbidden Fortressess Stay Forbidden

The Forbidden Fortress, much to Faith's displeasure, did _not_ live up to its name through her eyes. She knew the other four couldn't see it, and she hoped that the spirits didn't notice that she could detect them. Faith was in the lead, seeing as she was the only one able to see through the dark by way of the ghost bright light that shimmered off their form. The others nervously whispered behind her, their hushed tones echoing through the – quite literally – ghostly, abandon chambers.

They all wished they had warmer clothes, Jay only sported a leather vest, and was currently shivering in it. Faith felt like a ghost just walked through her (and at some points this _does_ actually happen). Mal's lips were turning blue, Carlos's breath appeared in white clouds as he spoke, and Evie's fingers felt like icicles, due mainly to the fact that they were soaked in rain and blood. It was colder than Dragon Hall, and there was no chance of anything getting any warmer.

Faith vaguely heard Evie talking about 'modern castle living,' but she didn't really understand it.

She sighed when she saw that inside every corridor, a dense fog floated just above the black marble floor, and there was always some poor lonely spirit moaning in the halls. Mal, thinking that Faith was sighing because of the fog nodded in agreement, "That has to be magic, right? The fog doesn't just do that," Mal said.

Carlos nodded, "The refracted energy seems stronger here. I think we're closer to the source than we've ever been."

As he spoke, a ghost with a powerful aura blew past them like an icy wind, whistling in through the shattered stain-glass windows high above them. Faith gagged at the smell that it left behind, the feeling was much like smelling too many perfumes at once. She recovered quickly though, and the five of them continued on their trek.

After a few intense feet Jay stopped, "What's that?" he asked, pointing. Green lights flashed through half-shattered panes of glass.

"It's what we've been tracking all along," Carlos answered. "That same electromagnetic energy: it's going crazy." He shook his head at the flashing lights on his box. "This fortress was definitely exposed to something that's left a kind of residue charge—"

"You mean, an enchantment?" Faith questioned, not looking back.

He shrugged, maybe just a little annoyed since he didn't see it as anything but scientific, "That too"

"And so, even after all these years, this place is somehow still glowing with its own light?" Evie looked amazed.

"Cool," Jay said.

Mal shrugged it off, "In other words, we're getting closer to the Dragon's Eye." 

Faith nodded in confirmation.

They continued on, corridors led to more corridors, until the five villains in training passed through dark hallways full of framed paintings shrouded in cobwebs and dust. "It's a portrait gallery," Evie said, straining to see the walls through the shadows. "Every castle has one."

Jay looked behind him and jumped back, "Mal, stop it—" he shouted before slightly jumping again when Mal tapped his shoulder.

"Hello? I'm not back there, I'm right in front of you."

Jay held his heart, "Crap, I thought that picture was you," he said while pointing toward the picture.

"That's not me, that's my mother," Mal said with a sigh.

"Whoa" Jay said.

"You really do look like her, you know," Faith told her.

"Yeah, you two could be twins," Evie agreed.

"That my friends, is called genetics," Carlos commented with a smile.

"Gee, thanks—I look like my mother? Just what every girl _wants_ to hear," Mal replied. She studied the portrait for a bit before shaking her head, "Now what?" Mal asked, trying to change the subject.

Faith looked around, there, in front of them, lay five corridors leading to five different parts of the fortress. A foul draft flowed from each path, minus the third one to the left. _That_ one was coated with the scent of spirits. The moans of the dead reached her ears easily, they were incredibly loud, and apparently, powerful, seeing as Jay looked in the direction of where it came from with an unsettled look. He snapped out of it when Faith looked at him questioningly, he then yanked a matchbook from his pocket and lit a match, muttering a quick "biney-eenie-meanie-miney-mo," he said under his breath as he pointed down each corridor.

"How scientific," Carlos said, rolling his eyes.

"You got your way, I got mine. That one," Jay said, pointing to the corridor directly in front of them. Just as he did, the wind blew out from that same passage. Faith gagged silently at the foul stench that invaded her senses. Her watering eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light as the match was snuffed out by the wind.

Evie held her nose, and Mal did the same, the latter sending Faith a concerning glance as the voodoo man's daughter tried to regain her balance. "Are you sure about this?" Mal asked, her voice addressed everyone, but it was mainly directed towards the gagging girl.

"Duh," Jay began, not really seeing the situation, "of course not. That's why I played biney-eenie-meanie-miney-mo! One corridor is as good as the next," Jay said, entering the corridor and not waiting for the rest to follow.

"No, wait," Faith told him, making the thief halt. She stood tall and looked at the four of them. "You don't know where you're going. Carlos, check your box-compass-thing-a-ma-jig."

Carlos brought the box up to the intersection. It beeped. "Okay… I guess maybe Jay's right."

"Of course I am," Jay claimed, crossing his arms.

Faith snorted and walked past him and toward Carlos. "Don't get used to it," she muttered as she bumped her shoulder with his, then went to follow Carlos who was already leading the way down the passage.

Carlos held the beeping box in his hands, the sound echoing off the stony walls. Faith ducked her head as they entered a dank cold stairway that led further downward, deeper into the darkness. The frigid and moist air wasn't the only thing that made her shiver. It was the sounds of whispered and tortured screams, pleas of agony, and last wishes that caused the girl to tremor. The sound was so overwhelming that she could just barely hear the distant rattle that sounded of bones striking rock, or chains rattling in the wind.

Evie heard it much better than Faith had and sighed, "Because, that's _so_ comforting," she muttered as she huddled closer to Mal.

Mal chose to ignore the annoying blue berry's presence, "The dungeon," she said, as she took inventory of the room, "Or, you might know it as the place where my mother encountered the lovestruck Prince Phillip."

Faith winced as she heard the sound of a whip crack and someone's shout of despair. "Maleficent was going to lock him down here?" She questioned, picking up on the scent of old blood as they slowed their walk for who knows what reason.

"For like a hundred years right?" Evie asked, "That would've been fun."

Despite herself, Faith snorted, "As if he'd live that long…"

Carlos looked around, "She nearly pulled it off, didn't she?"

Mal nodded at all three of the questioning teens. "If not for that trio of self-righteous, busybody, blasted goody-too-shoes fairies," She sighed, "She would've succeeded. Instead it was, cut, end of scene. Enter Isle of the Lost."

Jay looked back at them, noticing that they had lagged further behind during the conversation, "Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like we've been down here a hundred years already. Let's get on with it," Jay told them as he increased his speed and walked closer to a dungeon door.

Carlos followed closely behind and held the box up to the door, listening for its beep. "This is the one."

He went ahead with the box with Faith not too far behind him, while Jay and Mal and Evie helped each other slowly down the steps, bracing themselves against the wall as they went. They needed to proceed with caution, for there was no rail, and the treads were coated in thick, slippery black moss.

"Eck," Evie whined as her foot squished in the mucky moss, "Suddenly, the whole mud river thing doesn't seem so bad."

Faith nodded.

"Seriously," Jay agreed.

A few utterly squishy treks into the darkness later, and they found themselves in front of a rotten wooden door, practically hanging off the hinges. "Here?" Mal asked as she touched it, then jumped back as the frame of the door collapsed, sending the wood clattering against the floor. Even the heavy iron straps that had once bound the door fell against the stones and the wood, making an awfully loud noise that had Faith wincing.

"M-maybe we shouldn't touch anything," said Carlos.

Mal rolled her eyes, "Too late for that."

Faith shuddered as she looked around, "I think this is it."

Mal nodded, and Jay pushed aside what little remained of the door. As they entered Faith heard the sounds of raspy breathing, and smelt something foreign. The sound of chimes rung around her. "Somethings not right," she muttered under her breath. And something wasn't, while spirits feel out of place all the time, this feeling she was receiving was way to foreign, yet familiar to her. Like a ghost that doesn't belong.

Apparently, Jay noticed something off as he observed his surroundings. "Did any of you notice –"

"Shut up," Evie hissed, her eyes flickering towards the door remains. Faith looked back and saw what put her allies on end, the door looked like a mouth, that of some feline creature. And the doorway looked like opened Jaws.

The five of them walked inside the impossibly dark space. Even Faith had to squint in order to make out the room. And the only shapes she could make out where rough lumps of… well, she didn't know.

Jay struck something with his hand in his search for a light, and suddenly, the room was engulfed in the deafening sounds of metal and stone colliding and grinding together. Faith immediately covered her ears to block out as much of the noise.

Only for her to be blinded by the flooding light that filled her vision. Faith cried out as she covered her watering eyes as she fell onto something soft… Something soft and… grainy. Sand.

Faith eyes snapped open once Evie's scream sounded. Faith shot up and looked around to see Mal thrashing around in the sand that was already up to her calves, and Carlos was sifting through the stand looking for his box. Jay was the only one who stood remotely still as he looked at the glittering objects that filled the room along with the room.

Now she understood. Probably sooner than the others, why the place seemed so foreign. This isn't a part of the isle, someone teleported or moved a place to the castle. And the souls that had passed in here had come with it.

Faith noticed Evie push away some sand and saw a new crown on her head, she shook her head as the princess questioned, "What is this? Where are we?"

"I can assure you this is not a part of my mother's castle," Mal answered wryly. "More residue from the hole in the dome perhaps?" she asked after spitting out some sand and brushing her purple bangs from her eyes.

Carlos nodded. "It has to be. There's no other explanation."

"Wait a minute, where's the scepter," Mal questioned as she spun around to stare at Carlos, wide eyed and nervous. "I-it has to be here, right? Has anyone seen it?"

Faith stood silently as Carlos blew sand away from the machine and checked it over. "The thing is still working, but I don't know. It's not beeping anymore. It's like it lost the signal, or something." Carlos told her, and Faith covered her ears to avoid hearing Mal's loud bark that was sure to be released soon.


End file.
